George Soros, billionaire and founder of Soros Fund Management LLC.
George Soros pledged $1 billion to fund a new university network to tackle the spread of nationalism in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where the financier and philanthropist also condemned President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping.
The Hungarian-born U.S. billionaire announced the Open Society University Network (OSUN) as an international platform for teaching and research that existing universities all over the world would be able to join.
Soros said the OSUN is the “innovative educational network that the world really needs,” adding that his Open Society Foundation will be “contributing” $1 billion to establish the international platform for teaching and research.
Soros said the network was “the most important project of my life” and would build on the work of his Open Society Fund, which has invest billions into pro-democracy and human rights projects around the world.
The billionaire also had stinging remarks for President Trump (calling him “a con man” and “the ultimate narcissist”), Facebook and the leaders of China and India in his annual speech at Davos.
“When his fantasy of becoming President came true, his narcissism developed a pathological dimension. He has transgressed the limits imposed on the presidency by the Constitution and has been impeached for it,” said Soros, speaking just days after President Trump had addressed the gathering of the world’s political and business elites.
Soros voiced concern about the 2020 U.S. election and the influence that Facebook wielded. “Facebook will work together to reelect Trump, and Trump will work to protect Facebook so that this situation cannot be changed, and it makes me very concerned about the outcome for 2020,” said Soros.
Soros also singled out Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for criticism warning that the BJP politician’s actions were the “most frightening setback” in the battle for open society against “would-be and actual dictators.” Soros said “democratically elected Narendra Modi is creating a Hindu nationalist state, imposing punitive measures on Kashmir, a semiautonomous Muslim region, and threatening to deprive millions of Muslims of their citizenship.”
Turning to western Europe, Soros appeared to concede that the battle to keep the United Kingdom in the European Union was over. “The fight to prevent Brexit—harmful to both Britain and the EU—[had] ended with a crushing defeat,” said Soros, who had donated $500,000 to an anti-Brexit campaign group in 2018, and has been a vocal champion of the EU.
George Soros is a celebrated hedge fund tycoon who managed client money in New York from 1969 to 2011. He was born in Hungary but left the country at 17 and put himself through the London School of Economics working as a railway porter and waiter.
In 1992 he grabbed global fame after shorting the British pound and reportedly making a profit of $1 billion during “Black Wednesday”–the day Britain dropped the the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) and abandoned the path toward a common European currency. In 2018, Soros shifted $18 billion from his family office to his Open Society Foundation.
In June last year Soros and a number of the world’s wealthiest business leaders signed a letter calling for a new U.S. wealth tax. Addressing the “2020 Presidential Candidates,” the letter claimed: “America has a moral, ethical and economic responsibility to tax our wealth more. A wealth tax could help address the climate crisis, improve the economy, improve health outcomes, fairly create opportunity and strengthen our democratic freedoms. Instituting a wealth tax is in the interest of our republic.”
