Biography & Early Wealth Journey

HENNY RAY ABRAMS/AFP/Getty Images

HENNY RAY ABRAMS/AFP/Getty Images

It's doubtful that either Mad Max or Darth Vader ever gave as much money away as John Malone has, however. Most of his philanthropic endeavors reflect his sciences background, having studied at electrical engineering and economics as an undergrad, eventually getting PhD in operations research from John Hopkins. In 2011, the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering received a gift of $50 million (which also happened to be the largest contribution ever made to the school), which resulted in the school's Homewood Campus getting a new building – Malone Hall. Another $60 million went to Hopkins School in Connecticut for Malone Science Center and Heath Commons, reportedly getting their names from Malone's father and his favorite teacher while he was a student at Hopkins himself, respectively. Colorado State University's Institute for Biologic Translational Therapies also has a financial contribution from Malone to thank for its existence, a $42.5 million gift made in 2014 by Malone and his wife. Then there's the Malone Family Foundation, in charge of the Malone Scholars Program for funding scholarship endowments at more than 30 private universities throughout the country.

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Primary Income Streams & Multi-Million Contracts

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Some other pies that John Malone's fingers have been in over the years will probably be familiar to you, including premium cable channel Starz and the travel website TripAdvisor. He also has a seat on the Lionsgate movie studio's executive board, so it might be just a matter of time before he earns the nickname "Jigsaw" to go along with Darth Vader and Mad Max.

Malone's net worth soared to $4.4 billion in 2000 when he orchestrated the sale of TCI to AT&T for $48 billion. In the wake of the dotcom bubble, his net worth plunged down to $1.3 billion in 2002. It took around 8 years for his net worth to get back above $4 billion. By 2014, his net worth climbed to $7.7 billion.

Through his company Tele-Communications, John Malone serves as Chairman of Liberty Media, Liberty Global and Liberty Interactive. Liberty Global was 27 million cable subscribers around the world in 14 different countries. Through Liberty Media, Malone's empire controls roughly 30% of cable giant Charter Communications.

Real Estate, Luxury Assets & Personal Investments

Earlier this week, Charter announced it would acquire Time Warner Cable for $55 billion in cash and stock. The announcement of his deal has sent Malone's net worth to an all-time high of $9 billion.