How Trumps DOGE Co-Head Vivek Ramaswamy Built A Billion-Dollar Empire

US President-elect Donald Trump has appointed billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as co-heads of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The department's primary objectives include reducing wasteful spending, eliminating excessive regulations and restructuring federal agencies.

While Elon Musk's billionaire status is largely attributed to his ventures such as Tesla in electric vehicles, SpaceX in space exploration, and his acquisition of Twitter (now X), Vivek Ramaswamy has a staggering net worth too.

Mr Ramaswamy, the 39-year-old biotech investor and "anti-woke" advocate, has built a billion-dollar fortune through his drug-development company, Roivant Sciences, which went public in 2021. His net worth, estimated at over $950 million, makes him the second-wealthiest Republican presidential candidate, after Donald Trump, Forbes reported.

Mr Ramaswamy's financial success began with Roivant, a biotech company he founded in 2014. His stake in the company, combined with its strong performance in the stock market, has propelled him into the ranks of America's wealthiest individuals. In 2023, Roivant's stock rose nearly 40 per cent, increasing the value of his holdings to approximately $600 million. This impressive fortune is in addition to the more than $260 million he has earned from the company in salary, bonuses, and capital gains.

Beyond Roivant, Mr Ramaswamy diversified his wealth through various investments, including in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as shares in YouTube competitor Rumble and the crypto payment firm MoonPay. 

Mr Ramaswamy's journey to wealth comes from his deep understanding of the pharmaceutical industry. After graduating from Harvard University with a degree in biology, he worked at the hedge fund QVT, where he focused on pharmaceutical investments. By age 28, he had earned $7 million and became a partner. His move into entrepreneurship came at 29 when he founded Roivant Sciences with the backing of QVT. He believed that big pharma companies were leaving valuable drugs abandoned, and with the right focus, those drugs could be turned into profitable ventures.

One of Roivant's early successes was the 2015 IPO of Axovant, one of the company's spinoffs. Despite the failure of Axovant's high-profile Alzheimer's drug in clinical trials, Mr Ramaswamy found other lucrative opportunities. In 2020, Japanese pharmaceutical company Sumitomo Dainippon paid $3 billion for several of Roivant's drugs, giving Mr Ramaswamy another windfall and making him a well-known figure in both the business and political spheres.

In recent years, Mr Ramaswamy has become a vocal critic of corporate America's growing focus on social justice and the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) movement. In 2021, he stepped down as CEO of Roivant to focus on politics, authoring the book Woke, Inc., which critiques what he views as the corporate world's increasing politicisation. Mr Ramaswamy also founded Strive Asset Management, an "anti-woke" investment firm designed to counter the rise of ESG-focused funds. Strive was recently valued at around $300 million, with Mr Ramaswamy's stake estimated to be worth more than $100 million, as per Forbes.