Nicolas Berggruen

Nicolas Berggruen (; born 10 August 1961) is a German-American billionaire investor and philanthropist. Born in Paris, France, he is a dual German and American citizen. He is the founder and president of Berggruen Holdings, a private investment company and the co-founder and chairman of the Berggruen Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan think tank.

Early life and education

Nicolas Berggruen was born in Paris, France. He is the son of art collector and dealer Heinz Berggruen and actress Bettina Moissi. His father comes from a German Jewish family, and his mother was a Catholic Albanian and German, the daughter of actors Aleksandër Moisiu and Herta Hambach. Heinz Berggruen was considered one of the world's greatest art collectors, having donated and sold works by Picasso, Klee, and Matisse to the Berggruen Museum in Berlin, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and the National Gallery in London. Although born in France, Berggruen's first language is German. He is also fluent in English and French. Berggruen has two older half-siblings from his father's first marriage: John, an art dealer, and Helen, an artist. He has a full younger brother, Olivier, an art historian and curator. Berggruen credits his father for his competitive drive: "What I learned from my father [was] passion and focus... He valued quality over quantity". They were raised Catholic. Growing up in Paris in the 1970s, Berggruen spent his time reading. Berggruen attended high school at Le Rosey in Switzerland. Berggruen refused to learn English at the time because he thought it was "the language of imperialism." In 1978, Nicolas moved to London, where he became fluent in English and was trained by Max Rayne at London Merchant Securities.

At age 17, Berggruen moved to New York to attend New York University, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in Finance and International Business in 1981. Between 1983 and 1987, Berggruen was a Principal at Jacobson and Co., a leveraged buyout company.

Berggruen Holdings Berggruen moved back to New York and started investing in real estate and public stocks using his trust fund worth about $250,000. before the founders reportedly sold to Safra Bank in 2004.

In 2005, for the symbolic fee of 1 euro, Berggruen bought the insolvent German retailer Karstadt, investing over 65 million euros (US$83 million) and saving over 25,000 jobs. In 2010, having spent 400 million euros, he brought the company out of bankruptcy.

Through Freedom Acquisitions – his first investment vehicle that went public in 2006 In 2009, with his second fund, Liberty Acquisitions, Berggruen bought Pearl Insurance, and in 2010, he bought a majority stake in the Spanish media group, Prisa, for a reported US$900 million. In 2012, Justice holdings took an £881m (29%) stake in Burger King Worldwide, Inc. In Tel Aviv, Berggruen worked with architect Richard Meier to design a luxury-apartment complex on Rothschild Boulevard. In 2014, the real estate investments became the foundation of Berggruen's NBP Capital, specializing in investment management, development, construction, hospitality, and property management services. In 2020, NBP Capital's market value exceeded $1 billion.

In 2012, through Berggruen Holdings, Berggruen was a primary investor and developer in Newark, New Jersey's Teachers Village. Designed by Richard Meier, the project revitalized five blocks of downtown Newark.

In 2013, Berggruen Holdings invested in the East Africa Exchange, a privately funded regional, agricultural commodities exchange in East Africa. The exchange aims to increase regional market efficiency and ensure higher incomes for farmers, especially smallholder farmers. Berggruen said, "Agriculture is key to Africa's prosperity, and so aiding the flow of information and finance within the agricultural sector will be especially helpful." Additionally, Berggruen Holdings, Heirs Holdings, and 50 Ventures partnered to form Africa Exchange Holdings, Ltd (AFEX), to develop a network of commodity exchanges to transform trade dynamics and ensure higher incomes for the rural poor. To address these issues, Berggruen invested US$100 million into the Institute, subsequently endowing it with an additional US$500 million in 2016.

Berggruen launched the Institute after a series of organized discussions in California aimed at addressing the state's expanding debt. The talks became the Think Long Committee for California, a bipartisan initiative focused on reforming California's governance system. The initiative garnered the support of prominent political players, including former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, billionaire entrepreneur Eli Broad, former California governor Gray Davis, and Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google. The sessions produced a bill to reform California's referendum system, which then California governor Jerry Brown signed into law in 2012.

In 2015, Berggruen announced the launch of the Berggruen Philosophy and Culture Center. In collaborations with Peking, Stanford, New York, and Oxford Universities, amongst others, the Center brings together leading thinkers from around the world to ponder how culture and philosophy inform political thinking. The Center offers a fellowship program between Chinese and American universities and an annual $1 million philosophy prize awarded by an international jury.

Philosophical views Democracy Berggruen's beliefs on renewing democracy include a stable US–China relationship, participation without populism, addressing climate change, and instituting "universal basic capital" to ensure adequate living conditions for everyone regardless of employment status. His views of democracy call for an inclusive political culture and positive nationalism. The Financial Times named it as one of their "Best Books of 2012".

In 2019, Berggruen and Gardels published their second book, Renovating Democracy: Governing in the Age of Globalization and Digital Capitalism. The authors advocate for the restructuring of democratic government frameworks to ensure adequate living conditions for everyone. They argue that in a time where jobs are being replaced by technology, employment should not determine if a person's basic needs are accounted for. In 2010, he joined Bill Gates and Warren Buffett's The Giving Pledge to address some of society’s most pressing problems.

Art Berggruen's father was an influential art dealer and collector who left a legacy of donations to various museums. His youngest brother, Olivier Berggruen, is an art historian and curator. An avid collector in the early 1980s and 1990s, while living in NYC, Berggruen began collecting Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. In his approach to collecting, Berggruen stated: "Collecting should be guided by your eye, your tastes. It's an intellectual pursuit."

Berggruen is the head of the Board of the Berggruen Museum in Berlin. He is a member of the Los Angeles County Museum (LACMA), the International Councils of the Tate Gallery in London, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York as well as a member of the Beyeler Foundation, the International Council of the Serpentine Gallery, and Sotheby's International Advisory Board. He is an International Ambassador of The Feuerle Collection, based in Berlin.

In cooperation with LACMA, Berggruen has been making acquisitions intended for the museum.

In 2021, Berggruen signed a preliminary agreement to purchase the Casa dei Tre Oci on the Giudecca island in Venice, with plans to use the space to host symposia, workshops and exhibitions in partnership with major museums. In 2022, he also bought the Palazzo Diedo in the Cannaregio district, which is to focus primarily on dedicated artist commissions; the first artist-in-residence is Sterling Ruby.

Associations and awards Berggruen is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Director on the Board of the Pacific Council on International Policy, a member of Foro Iberoamericano, a member of the Helena Group, and a member of the Commission on Global Ethics and Citizenship. In 2013 he was appointed by Harvard's Center for European Studies as its first non-resident Senior Fellow. He was named a member of the Brookings Institution's International Advisory Council and the NYU President's Global Council. In 2014 he was named a member of the Leadership Council at Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership, a member of Harvard University's Global Advisory Council, and a trustee of the Asia Society. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum.

Berggruen was honored by his alma mater, NYU Stern, at the 2016 Haskins Giving Society Award Dinner for his commitment to business and public service. In 2018, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. In 2025, he was named an honorary trustee of Peking University.

Personal life In the early 2000s, Berggruen was dubbed "the homeless billionaire" when he sold off his residential properties and belongings. In 2016, he had two children born from one egg donor and two surrogates. In 2021, he acquired the Gordon Kaufmann-designed, Hearst estate in Beverly Hills for $63.1 million, at the time the most ever paid for a home at an auction. The property was renamed the Beverly Estate in 2022.

He dated Noor Alfallah in 2018.