What is Ken Griffin's net worth?
Ken Griffin is an American entrepreneur who has a net worth of $41 billion. Griffin is the CEO of Citadel, a hedge fund with over $65 billion in assets under management. The Chicago-based company has five core strategies in fixed income and macro, quantitative strategies, commodities, equities and credit. He also founded Citadel Securities, a global market-making business.
Ken Griffin founded Citadel LLC in 1990 at age 22, after initially trading from his Harvard dorm room. Starting with $4.6 million in capital, he built Citadel into one of the world's largest hedge funds and financial institutions. The firm became known for sophisticated quantitative trading strategies and heavy investment in technology. Despite facing significant challenges during the 2008 financial crisis, Griffin successfully steered Citadel through the downturn and emerged stronger. He expanded the business by creating Citadel Securities, which became a dominant market maker handling a substantial portion of U.S. stock trading volume. Under Griffin's leadership, Citadel has consistently delivered strong returns, making him one of the highest-earning hedge fund managers globally. His success has translated into significant personal wealth, enabling notable philanthropic giving to educational institutions and museums, along with major political donations primarily to conservative causes.
Griffin is also known for record-breaking real estate purchases, including some of the most expensive residential properties ever sold. More details on his lavish home purchases later in this article.
Early Life
Ken Griffin was born in Daytona Beach, Florida, on October 15, 1968. Griffin went on to graduate from Harvard University. He began trading while in college and had amassed a million dollars by the time he graduated.
Success
He then launched his own hedge fund company, Citadel LLC, in 1990. The company was massively successful throughout the 90s and early 2000s, and Mr. Griffin started regularly appeared on the lists of richest Americans published by Forbes and Fortune. His company took a beating in 2008, as did most funds. He personally lost over a billion dollars in net worth in the aftermath of 2008 and his fund lost $9 billion. He eventually managed to recover, however, and is back at pre-recession levels with more than $35 billion under management.
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Meme Stock Controversy
Through his electronic trading operation, Citadel Securities, Ken has become the target of criticism and outright hate from some small-time investors. These criticisms can be traced to the so-called "meme stocks" that shot up in popularity in early 2020. Many of these meme stocks, like AMC and GameStop, were being bought and sold on the trading platform Robinhood.
In late January 2020, as GameStop's share price was exploding, Robinhood temporarily made it so those meme stocks could only be SOLD. The buy button was removed altogether. Critics claim that Citadel pressured Robinhood to place those trading restrictions as the prices fluctuated rapidly. The restriction made it so investors could only sell at a time when the price was falling, causing some people to lose money. Citadel denied any involvement in Robinhood's decision.
Art Collection
In addition to his hedge fund work, he is also a major art collector. In 2016 he spent $500 million to acquire two paintings, one by Jackson Pollack, the other by Willem de Kooning.
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Philanthropy
Griffin has given more than $1 billion to various charities so far. He has donated to numerous organizations including The University of Chicago, the Ann & Robert Lurie Children's Hospital, The Field Museum of Natural History, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, and the American Museum of Natural History.
In early 2020 Ken Griffin and partners of Citadel and Citadel Securities gave$20 million, for COVID-19 efforts in China, Chicago, New York and the U.K. Recipients include Greater Chicago Food Depository, Imperial College London, NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund and Rockefeller University.
Constitution
In November 2021 Ken paid $43.2 million at auction for an extremely rare first-edition copy of the U.S. Constitution. Griffin famously outbid a group of crypto investors who pooled together $40 million with the hopes of winning the auction, which was conducted by Sotheby's.
Real Estate
Ken Griffin has made headlines for several record-breaking real estate purchases, most notably in 2019 when he bought a penthouse at 220 Central Park South in New York City for approximately $238 million, which was the most expensive home ever sold in the United States at that time.
Between 2013 and 2019 alone, Ken spent $750 million on personal residences. Those purchases include a $58 million home in Chicago (the most expensive purchase in Illinois history), a $60 million home in Miami (a record for Miami), a $17 million mansion in Hawaii, $200 million worth of LAND in Palm Beach, Florida, a $122 million mansion in London and four floors of a New York City building that cost $238 million. His New York City purchase set the record for the most expensive home in the history of the United States. In December 2021, Ken paid $75 million for a mansion on Miami's Star Island. The purchase set the record for the most-expensive home sale in Miami history.
In London, he purchased a historic mansion near Buckingham Palace for about $122 million in 2019, which was one of the most expensive properties ever sold in that city. The 200-year-old property reportedly required extensive renovations.
In Florida, Griffin assembled a massive estate in Palm Beach worth over $500 million by purchasing multiple adjacent properties over several years. This included breaking local real estate records with several individual purchases.
In Miami, he purchased multiple properties in Coral Gables and on Star Island. In 2020, he announced plans to relocate Citadel's headquarters from Chicago to Miami, following which he continued to expand his Florida real estate portfolio.
In Chicago, before his relocation to Florida, he owned the full-floor penthouse at the Waldorf Astoria, purchased for $58.75 million, setting a record for the city's most expensive private residence at the time.
Wealth Milestones
- Started out investing in his dorm with $265k raised from friends and family. Had over $1m by the time he graduated
- Personally lost $1b in 2008 crisis, his firm lost $9b
- Today his company, which he owns entirely, manages $30 billion
- Made $1.4 billion in 2018
- Has spent $750 million on personal real estate since 2013
- In 2017 he donated $125m to the University of Chicago
- In 2016 he spent $500m on TWO paintings
- Holds the record for most expensive home purchase in Illinois, Florida, New York and the United States
- His $200m purchase in Palm Beach, FL is just land. Still needs to build a house!
- His $240m NYC purchase is the top four un-furnished floors of a building. Still needs to spend millions on furniture and fixtures (sinks, stoves, refrigerators)
