Tom Steyer founded the hedge fund Farallon Capital in 1986, left in 2012 for climate advocacy, and spent over $253 million on his 2020 presidential run.
Mathematician Jim Simons founded Renaissance Technologies and its Medallion Fund, using quantitative models to become known as the most successful hedge fund manager of all time.
George Soros founded the Quantum Fund, earned a $1 billion profit betting against the pound on Black Wednesday in 1992 and has donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundations.
Bill Ackman founded Gotham Partners in 1992 and later Pershing Square Capital Management, becoming one of the best-known activist investors on Wall Street.
Henry Kravis co-founded Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and pioneered the leveraged buyout, including the RJR Nabisco deal chronicled in Barbarians at the Gate.
Robert F. Smith won a Bell Labs internship by calling every Monday for five months, then founded Vista Equity Partners. In 2020 he settled a $139 million tax fraud case.
Carl Icahn made his name as a 1980s corporate raider through TWA and pioneered shareholder activism as a mainstream hedge-fund strategy.
Ray Dalio traded commodities from a converted Connecticut barn after Harvard and built Bridgewater into one of the world's largest hedge funds, then wrote Principles.
David Rubenstein co-founded the private equity firm Carlyle Group, owns the Baltimore Orioles and chairs institutions including the National Gallery of Art and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Ronald Perelman built MacAndrews & Forbes through leveraged buyouts spanning Revlon, cigars, licorice and comic books. His net worth fell from $19.8 billion in 2018 to $1.9 billion in 2022.
