How Vivek Ramaswamy made a fortune before pivoting to politics

Just a week before Donald Trump officially launched his first Republican presidential campaign by descending the Trump Tower escalator, a biotech company set a record with the largest initial public offering at that time.

This financial surge spotlighted Axovant’s CEO, Vivek Ramaswamy, who was then 29 years old. His transition from a hedge fund analyst to a biotech leader gained significant attention, elevating his net worth to hundreds of millions. After the 2015 offering, Ramaswamy established other pharmaceutical ventures, launched an “anti-woke” financial firm, authored two books, and became a frequent cable news commentator.

Ramaswamy’s unconventional campaign has recently gained momentum, polling at similar or higher levels than other Republican presidential candidates with more experience. A CBS News presidential poll from late April showed Ramaswamy polling at 4 percent, matching the levels of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence, who has not yet declared his candidacy.

His performance raises the question of whether his self-funded campaign and strong media presence can elevate him further in a crowded primary. Ramaswamy’s campaign informed POLITICO of his readiness to invest over $100 million into his campaign—sufficient for long-term operations in early primary states but below the cost of a nationwide campaign.

According to FEC filings, he has already invested $10.5 million of his own money in the first quarter, allowing him to employ staff—primarily for his extensive digital operations—and spend over $1 million on digital and TV ads in crucial primary states, as per AdImpact, which monitors political advertising.

POLITICO examined his financial journey, noting that his path to wealth differs from other self-funding candidates.

Though Ramaswamy has not yet submitted a mandatory personal financial disclosure (his campaign requested an extension to be “thorough”), he has shared 20 years of his tax returns online and with reporters. These documents date back to 2002, the year he turned 17 and reported earnings of $2,000.

He first reported an annual income exceeding $1 million in 2011 while working at QVT Financial and has since declared earnings of over $240 million, largely due to $174 million in capital gains in 2020.

Ramaswamy’s primary wealth source is equity in the companies he founded, several of which are publicly traded. Filings reveal how this 37-year-old from Ohio amassed hundreds of millions through a network of companies focused on drug development before shifting to politics.

On February 22, a day after announcing his presidential run, Ramaswamy sold four million shares in Roivant, a biotech company he founded, at $7.95 each, according to public filings with the SEC. This transaction was valued at nearly $32 million before taxes. The filing indicated Ramaswamy, who stepped down from day-to-day operations in 2021, still holds over 54 million shares.

Axovant, which had secured hundreds of millions in the 2015 public offering, was one of Roivant’s subsidiaries. Axovant’s initial drug, meant to treat Alzheimer’s, failed in clinical trials, forcing the company to pivot before dissolving. However, other Roivant subsidiaries have received FDA approval for their drugs.

In 2022, Ramaswamy founded Strive Asset Management, an investment firm opposing the environmental, social, and governance criteria used by some firms in investment decisions, amid broader conservative opposition to “ESG.” Backed by billionaires like Peter Thiel and Bill Ackman, the firm claimed to manage over $230 million in assets within two weeks last August, though Ramaswamy’s compensation is not disclosed.

Ramaswamy left the firm to pursue the presidency in February; its major investors have not supported his campaign. Thiel recently indicated a withdrawal from politics while also showing preference for DeSantis. Ackman initially supported Ramaswamy’s campaign but later withdrew, expressing in an April tweet a preference for a candidate “closer to the center.”

Ramaswamy’s financial involvement is still minor compared to other self-funded candidates who have spent significantly more with varying success. For example, two Democrats spent much more in the 2020 primary: Michael Bloomberg invested over $1 billion in a late campaign but won only one primary in American Samoa, while Tom Steyer spent over $340 million with little success. Ramaswamy’s net worth, typically in the hundreds of millions, suggests he lacks the resources Bloomberg had for his campaign.

Challenges for self-funded candidates are not limited to presidential races; only six of 44 congressional candidates who spent at least $1 million of their own money won in 2022, according to OpenSecrets, with half losing their primaries.

Ramaswamy, who is also fundraising, collecting over $850,000 from donors in the first six weeks of his campaign, seeks to emulate Trump’s 2016 strategy. Trump, branding himself as an outsider and successful businessman, invested over $66 million of his own money into his campaign.

Ramaswamy is positioning his self-funding as an advantage.

“I don’t have years of political lists and campaign bases to draw from or existing donors,” he told Fox News in a recent interview. “Frankly that actually gives me some latitude many of those professional politicians don’t have because those donors — especially megadonors — have expectations. I don’t dance to anybody else’s tune.”