Paul Singer is an American hedge fund manager, activist investor, and philanthropist who has a net worth of $7 billion.

Paul Singer is the founder, president, co-CEO, and co-chief investment officer of Elliott Investment Management, one of the world's largest and most influential activist investment firms. He launched Elliott in 1977 with just $1.3 million in capital from friends and family. Nearly five decades later, the firm manages roughly $80 billion.

Singer built his reputation through a combination of distressed-debt investing, merger arbitrage, corporate activism, private equity, credit, and special-situations investing. Elliott is famous for taking positions in companies and then aggressively pressing executives and boards for changes ranging from asset sales and management replacements to cost cuts, restructurings, and outright sales of the business.

Singer has also become synonymous with a particularly combative form of distressed-debt investing. His most famous campaign was a roughly 15-year battle with Argentina over defaulted government bonds, which ultimately resulted in a $2.4 billion payment to Elliott and its affiliates in 2016. Over the decades, Singer has transformed a modest investment partnership into a global financial institution while accumulating a multi-billion-dollar personal fortune.

Paul Elliott Singer was born on August 22, 1944. He attended the University of Rochester, graduating with a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1966. He subsequently attended Harvard Law School, earning his J.D. in 1969.

Singer initially pursued a career in law rather than investing. In 1974, he joined the real estate division of investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette as an attorney. During this period, he became increasingly interested in financial markets and began experimenting with trading strategies on his own.

Those early experiences ultimately convinced Singer that he was better suited to investing than practicing law.

In 1977, Singer pooled approximately $1.3 million from friends and family and founded what became Elliott Management. The firm's name came from Singer's middle name.

Early on, Singer focused heavily on convertible arbitrage, searching for discrepancies between the prices of convertible securities and the stocks into which they could be converted. Elliott gradually expanded into distressed debt, bankruptcy situations, equities, commodities, real estate-related securities, private equity, and other strategies.

Singer developed a reputation for prioritizing downside protection and avoiding permanent losses. That conservative streak did not prevent Elliott from taking aggressive positions when Singer believed the potential payoff justified the fight. Over time, that combination became one of the firm's defining characteristics.

Elliott grew into one of the oldest hedge funds still operating under continuous management. Its longevity is particularly notable in an industry where investment firms frequently disappear after a few bad years. The firm has produced average annualized returns of roughly 13% over its history while suffering remarkably few losing years.

Elliott is perhaps best known for activist investing. Rather than simply buying shares and hoping management performs well, the firm frequently purchases meaningful stakes in companies and then publicly or privately pushes for changes.

Over the years, Elliott has targeted some of the world's largest corporations. Its campaigns have involved companies across technology, energy, transportation, consumer goods, healthcare, and industrial sectors. Targets have included eBay, Twitter, AT&T, Salesforce, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, Honeywell, BP, and numerous others.

Elliott's influence extends well beyond the size of its individual positions. The firm's arrival in a stock can itself become a major event because investors know Singer's team is likely to arrive with an extensive strategic plan and the resources to wage a prolonged proxy or legal battle if management resists.

By the mid-2020s, Elliott had grown to more than 600 employees and approximately $80 billion under management, transforming from a combative hedge fund into a major Wall Street institution.

Singer's most famous investment involved Argentine government debt.

After Argentina defaulted on roughly $100 billion of debt in 2001, most creditors eventually accepted restructurings that significantly reduced what they were owed. Elliott, through its NML Capital affiliate, refused to participate and instead pursued full repayment through the courts.

The dispute dragged on for approximately 15 years and involved litigation in multiple jurisdictions. Elliott even pursued Argentine assets around the world as it attempted to enforce its claims.

The confrontation ended in 2016 after Argentina agreed to settle with Elliott and other holdout creditors. Elliott received roughly $2.4 billion, producing an enormous return on the distressed bonds it had acquired.

The episode cemented Singer's reputation as one of the most relentless investors on Wall Street. Admirers viewed the outcome as proof of Elliott's willingness to defend contractual rights regardless of how powerful its opponent might be, while critics pointed to the case as an example of the aggressive tactics used by distressed-debt investors.

Elliott has also expanded well beyond traditional hedge-fund activism. Through affiliated investment vehicles, the firm has acquired entire companies, invested in private credit, and participated in major corporate restructurings.

One notable investment came in European soccer. Elliott took control of AC Milan in 2018 after the club's previous owner defaulted on financing provided by the firm. Elliott stabilized the club's finances and oversaw a turnaround before selling AC Milan to RedBird Capital Partners for approximately $1.2 billion in 2022.

The firm has continued expanding into large-scale private and distressed investments while Singer has gradually developed a deeper leadership bench. His son, Gordon Singer, and longtime Elliott executive Jesse Cohn have become important figures within the organization.

Singer has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to charitable causes. His giving is conducted primarily through the Paul E. Singer Foundation and related charitable organizations.

His philanthropy has supported medical research, education, Jewish organizations, national security initiatives, economic policy research, and organizations connected to Israel. Singer has also supported LGBTQ rights, including same-sex marriage advocacy, an issue that became personally important to him after his son came out as gay.

Forbes has estimated that Singer has contributed roughly $300 million to his foundation since 2010. He has also signed the Giving Pledge, committing to give away a significant portion of his fortune during his lifetime or through his estate.

Few investors have remained influential for as long as Paul Singer. He founded Elliott when Jimmy Carter was president and has continued overseeing the firm through multiple recessions, financial crises, technology bubbles, sovereign defaults, and dramatic changes in global markets.

Singer's defining characteristic has been persistence. Whether confronting a corporate board, negotiating a restructuring, or pursuing a sovereign government through more than a decade of litigation, Elliott has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to keep fighting long after most investors would have moved on.

That approach has turned $1.3 million in initial capital into an investment firm managing roughly $80 billion and made Singer one of the wealthiest and most influential hedge fund managers of his generation.