Nicolas Berggruen, The "homeless Billionaire," Invests $500 Million To Start Los Angeles Think Tank | Celebrity Net Worth 2026

In a previous era, billionaire Nicolas Berggruen was known by many as the "Homeless Billionaire," for his novel embrace of the "no fixed address" lifestyle despite his net worth in the billion-dollar neighborhood. He's given up the wandering rich guy life since he had children, but he's now putting a significant amount of money into a new project that is tied to a single location: A "secular monastery" he's building in the mountains overlooking Los Angeles.

Berggruen is giving $500 million of his own money over to the public policy think tank, which he says will be a sanctuary for philosophers and scholars to work, think, and reconsider the problems facing lawmakers and public policy shapers in the 21st century. He's acquired 450 acres for the Berggruen Institute (which has actually been operating in other forms for five years), according to a story on the project in Bloomberg, and early last week he threw a lavish fifth anniversary party at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, populated with big names in the world of politics and business.