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How Tom Steyer Made His $1.6 Billion Fortune

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This article is more than 4 years old.

Michael Bloomberg refused to run. Howard Schultz is still on the fence. That makes Tom Steyer, a former hedge fund manager from California, the first billionaire to officially challenge America’s first billionaire commander-in-chief for the presidency. 

Forbes estimates Steyer’s net worth to be $1.6 billion, making him about half as rich as Trump (worth $3.1 billion) but far wealthier than any other presidential candidate. He has an 1,800-acre cattle ranch and a San Francisco mansion with views of the Golden Gate Bridge. But he mostly focuses his fortune on charity (he was among the first to sign the Giving Pledge, promising to donate much of his riches) and politics (he has spent hundreds of millions). When Forbes interviewed Steyer for a 2011 story, he was flying economy and driving a used Honda Accord hybrid.

“Tom’s not into money,” his brother, Jim, told Forbes. “He’s into achievement. He’s into changing the world for the better.”



The son of a Wall Street lawyer and a school teacher, Steyer worked on mergers and acquisitions for Morgan Stanley before picking up a Stanford M.B.A. and joining Goldman Sachs. In 1986 he moved to San Francisco to work in private equity, eventually creating Farallon Capital and growing it into one of the most profitable hedge funds in America.

“When we thought about investing, our rule was it’s important not to be greedy,” Steyer told Forbes in 2017. “We were always trying to be honest, not take huge risks, and always understanding the risks we were taking.”

He spent 26 years running Farallon, often delivering double-digit annual returns for his investors, before cashing out in 2012 to focus on politics and the environment. That move sparked controversy because Steyer had made a fortune, in part, by investing in fossil fuels. He sold his ownership stake in Farallon to his partners but has likely kept a sizable chunk of his personal portfolio invested in Farallon’s funds, which are now managed by his former right-hand man, Andrew Spokes.

Since then, Steyer has spent the better part of a decade turning his investment profits into political influence. He was a well-known Obama supporter, speaking at the 2012 Democratic National Convention and hosting the president for a fundraiser at his Bay Area home in 2013. He shelled out some $65 million to back Democratic candidates and environmental causes during the 2016 election. When Donald Trump, who Steyer has called “mentally unstable,” won the White House, Steyer launched an all-out offensive, including a national ad campaign calling for Trump’s impeachment. He has spent some $40 million on the initiative



Trump, for his part, has dubbed Steyer “wacky” and suggested that he “should be running out of money pretty soon.” That’s unlikely. Steyer reportedly plans to spend $100 million of his own money on his presidential bid, which would top the $66 million Trump put into his 2016 campaign—but would amount to only 6% of Steyer’s $1.6 billion fortune.

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