Howard Schultz and George Soros: What Is Their Connection?

Howard Schultz is 74 years old in 2027, with an estimated net worth of $3.5 billion, while George Soros is 97 years old, with an estimated net worth of $8.6 billion. Their only documented connection is indirect, through a political group Soros had funded.

That short answer is important, because many articles and social media posts make the link sound personal or secret. It is not. Howard Schultz and George Soros built their fortunes in completely different worlds, they have never run a business together, and there is no reliable public record that they are relatives, close friends, or business partners.

Schultz built Starbucks into a global coffee company. Soros built a fortune in financial markets and then gave most of it away through the Open Society Foundations. Their names came together in 2019, when a Democratic-aligned political group that Soros had donated to filed a federal election complaint about Schultz as he explored an independent run for president. That group, not Soros himself, was named in the complaint, and the Federal Election Commission later dismissed it.

In this guide, you will find who Howard Schultz and George Soros are, how they made their money, what their only documented connection really was, and a clear side-by-side comparison. All net worth figures here are estimates from Forbes and Celebrity Net Worth, not official figures released by the men themselves.

Who Is Howard Schultz?

Howard Schultz was born Howard D. Schultz on July 19, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He is 74 years old in 2027. His estimated net worth in 2027 is $3.5 billion, according to Celebrity Net Worth and Forbes, with Forbes reporting a real-time figure of $3.4 billion in October of the previous year. Most of his wealth is tied to Starbucks shares and other investments, so the figure moves with the share price.

Schultz grew up in the Canarsie public housing projects in Brooklyn. His father was a truck driver, and the family did not have much money. Schultz won a football scholarship to Northern Michigan University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in communications in 1975. After college, he worked as a salesman for Xerox, and later for Hammarplast, a Swedish kitchenware company.

He joined Starbucks in 1982 as director of retail operations and marketing. At that time, Starbucks was a small Seattle company that sold coffee beans and coffee-making equipment. It did not sell brewed coffee in cups. In 1983, Schultz visited Milan, Italy, and saw espresso bars where people gathered, talked, and drank coffee standing at the counter. He believed Americans would love the same experience.

Starbucks’ owners did not agree, so Schultz left in 1985 and founded his own coffee company, Il Giornale. In 1987, Il Giornale bought the Starbucks assets for $3.8 million with help from local investors, and Schultz took the Starbucks name for his company. He became chief executive officer and chairman, and he built the company around the Italian coffeehouse idea, with comfortable chairs, music, and coffee as an experience, not just a drink.

Under Schultz, Starbucks grew from 17 stores in 1987 to thousands of stores around the world. He served as chief executive from 1987 to 2000, returned as chief executive from 2008 to 2017, and served again as interim chief executive from 2022 to 2023, when Laxman Narasimhan took over. By the time Schultz stepped back, Starbucks had more than 28,000 stores in over 70 countries.

Schultz also moved into investing. In 1998, he co-founded Maveron, a venture capital firm, with Dan Levitan. In 1996, he and his wife Sheri founded the Schultz Family Foundation, which focuses on economic opportunity, veterans, and young people looking for work.

He has written several books, including Pour Your Heart Into It in 1997, Onward in 2011, and From the Ground Up in 2019. In early 2019, he explored a run for president of the United States as an independent candidate. He said he was worried about both major parties, but Democrats feared an independent run would split the vote and help Donald Trump win re-election in 2020. Schultz ended his exploration in September 2019.

In his personal life, Schultz is married to Sheri Kersch Schultz. They have two children. In March 2026, Schultz announced that he and Sheri were moving from Seattle to South Florida. He bought a $44 million penthouse at the Surf Club, Four Seasons Private Residences, in Surfside, Florida, and in August 2026 he sold his longtime Hawaii estate for $36 million.

Who Is George Soros?

George Soros was born György Schwartz on August 12, 1930, in Budapest, Hungary. He is 97 years old in 2027. His estimated net worth in 2027 is $8.6 billion, according to Forbes in September of the previous year. Celebrity Net Worth gives a figure of $9 billion. The range reflects different methods and different dates, but the headline figure used by Forbes is $8.6 billion.

Soros was born into a Jewish family in Budapest. He was 13 years old when Nazi Germany occupied Hungary in March 1944. He survived the occupation with his family, and in 1947 he moved to the United Kingdom. He studied philosophy at the London School of Economics, where he was influenced by the philosopher Karl Popper and his ideas about open societies. In 1956, Soros emigrated to the United States and began working on Wall Street.

In 1970, he founded Soros Fund Management. In 1973, he founded the Quantum Fund with Jim Rogers. Soros became famous for his theory of reflexivity, the idea that investors’ beliefs can change the markets they are trying to predict, and that markets do not always move in a simple, logical way.

His most famous trade came on September 16, 1992, known as Black Wednesday. Soros bet against the British pound, believing the United Kingdom would be forced to leave the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. He was right, and the trade reportedly made about $1 billion in profit in a single day. It earned him the nickname “the man who broke the Bank of England,” although the trade was legal and based on his view of the currency.

Soros used much of his fortune for philanthropy. He founded the Open Society Foundations, which support democracy, human rights, education, and free media around the world. He has donated more than $32 billion to the foundations. In 2017, he transferred $18 billion to the Open Society Foundations, one of the largest philanthropic gifts ever made. In 2020, Forbes called him the “most generous giver” relative to his net worth. His son, Alexander Soros, took over as chair of the Open Society Foundations in 2023, as George Soros stepped back from day-to-day leadership.

Soros is also one of the largest political donors in the United States. Over the decade before 2026, Forbes calculated that he had contributed more than $200 million to American political candidates and political action committees, mostly supporting Democrats. That political giving is central to why his name appears in so many political stories, and why it is often linked to groups he did not directly control.

In his personal life, Soros has been married three times and has five children. He became a citizen of the United States, and he has lived in New York for most of his adult life. He has written many books about finance, politics, and open societies, including The Alchemy of Finance and The Crisis of Global Capitalism.

What Is Their Connection?

Howard Schultz and George Soros have no confirmed business partnership, no shared company, and no family relationship. Their only documented connection is indirect, through American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic-aligned political organisation.

American Bridge 21st Century, later known as AB PAC, is a political group that does opposition research for Democrats. It gathers information about political opponents that can be used in elections and public debate. The Center for Public Integrity identified Soros as one of the organisation’s significant financial supporters. FactCheck.org reported that Soros donated $2 million to American Bridge during the 2016 election cycle, and another $380,000 by April 2018. Those donations were made before the events involving Schultz.

The other half of the link came in early 2019, when Schultz was exploring an independent bid for the 2020 United States presidential election. On February 7, 2019, American Bridge filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, known as the FEC. The complaint questioned whether Schultz’s political activities had reached the point at which he was required to register and report as a federal candidate. The FEC case was recorded as Matter Under Review 7567.

The FEC did not find that Schultz had broken campaign-finance law. According to the FEC’s certification dated November 9, 2021, commissioners recorded two unsuccessful 3-3 votes on motions involving proposed analyses of the case. They then voted unanimously, 6-0, to dismiss the allegation and close the file. The complaint was dismissed, and the matter was closed.

That distinction matters. The named complainants in the FEC record were American Bridge 21st Century and its president, Bradley Beychok. Soros was not listed as a complainant. No evidence in the public records reviewed for this article shows that Soros personally directed the complaint, ordered it, or took part in the decision to file it. A donation to an organisation does not show that the donor directed every later decision it made.

There is also no reliable evidence that Schultz and Soros had a personal dispute, a direct confrontation, or a private meeting about the complaint. A meeting between them has not been verified in the sources reviewed. Their connection is best described as an institutional one: a group Soros had helped fund took action concerning Schultz, and a federal agency reviewed that action and dismissed it.

Why did American Bridge act? Schultz’s possible independent run worried many Democrats. They believed he could take votes from the Democratic candidate in 2020 and help Donald Trump win a second term. Soros, as a major Democratic donor, supported many of the same Democratic groups, but that shared political side does not prove coordination between Soros and American Bridge on this specific complaint.

Outside politics, Schultz and Soros have some broad similarities. Both are billionaires who built their wealth from nothing, both are Jewish, both have written books, and both run large foundations focused on opportunity and open societies. Those similarities explain why their names appear together in lists of wealthy business leaders, but they do not show a personal or business link.

Howard Schultz vs George Soros: Biography and Net Worth Comparison

Howard Schultz and George Soros have both had long, successful careers, but their backgrounds, training, and business models are very different. Schultz built a consumer brand, store by store. Soros built a fortune by taking positions in financial markets. Their careers show two different routes to billionaire wealth.

The net worth gap is clear. Soros, at $8.6 billion, is worth more than twice as much as Schultz, at $3.5 billion, even though Soros has given away far more money. Soros once held about $25 billion before he transferred $18 billion to his foundations in 2017. Schultz has given through his family foundation, but on a much smaller scale.

That gap does not mean Soros earned more from a single company. Schultz’s wealth is tied to one company he built and led for decades. Soros’s wealth came from decades of investment returns, and his giving reduced his personal fortune by billions. A company’s sales total is also not an owner’s salary. Starbucks sells billions of dollars of coffee every year, but that money goes to the company, its workers, its suppliers, and its shareholders, not only to Schultz.

Their leadership styles also show the contrast. Schultz focuses on brand, customer experience, store design, and employee benefits. He wrote about treating employees as partners and offering health care and stock options to part-time workers. Soros focuses on markets, risk, economic theory, and large political and social ideas. His best-known work is in currency trading and in his writing about reflexivity and open societies.

How Howard Schultz and George Soros Built Their Wealth

How Howard Schultz Built His Wealth

Howard Schultz built his wealth mainly through Starbucks ownership. He did not found Starbucks in 1971, but he bought its assets in 1987 and turned a small Seattle roaster into a global coffeehouse chain. His wealth grew as Starbucks grew, through shares, stock options, and his long service as chief executive and chairman.

His early pay was modest. As a salesman and later as a Starbucks manager, he earned a normal salary. His fortune came later, as the value of Starbucks rose. When Starbucks went public in 1992, its shares gave Schultz and other early investors a large paper fortune. As the company opened thousands of stores in the United States, China, and Europe, that value rose further.

Schultz also earned money from his books, from speaking, and from his venture capital firm, Maveron, which invested in consumer companies. Those earnings were much smaller than his Starbucks wealth. The Schultz Family Foundation, founded in 1996, is a separate charitable organisation, and its work should not be counted as personal income.

How George Soros Built His Wealth

George Soros built his wealth through financial markets. He started on Wall Street in the 1950s, and in 1970 he founded Soros Fund Management. The Quantum Fund, founded in 1973, became one of the most successful hedge funds in history. Soros made money by studying economies, currencies, and politics, and by taking large, carefully timed positions.

His most famous trade, against the British pound in 1992, made about $1 billion in profit. Other trades in currencies, stocks, and bonds added to his fortune over decades. Unlike Schultz, Soros did not build a consumer brand or a chain of stores. His business was managing money, and his wealth came from investment returns, not from selling a product to customers.

Soros Fund Management later became a family office, managing the Soros family’s money rather than outside investors’ money. His philanthropy is also much larger than his remaining personal wealth suggests. He has donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundations, including the $18 billion transfer in 2017. That giving is why his net worth today is $8.6 billion, far below the roughly $25 billion he held before that transfer. [External Source: Forbes]

The key lesson from both careers is simple: wealth can come from building a company, or from investing in markets, but the two paths look very different. Schultz’s wealth is visible in stores on almost every high street. Soros’s wealth was built in trading rooms, and much of it has now been given away.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

A common mistake is to say Howard Schultz and George Soros are business partners. There is no reliable public record that they co-founded a company, invested together, or ran a joint venture. Another mistake is to say Soros personally filed the FEC complaint against Schultz. The complaint was filed by American Bridge 21st Century and its president, Bradley Beychok. Soros had donated to American Bridge in earlier years, but he was not named as a complainant.

People also make mistakes with the numbers. Do not present $3.5 billion for Schultz or $8.6 billion for Soros as official, confirmed wealth. Both figures are estimates from Forbes and Celebrity Net Worth, based on share prices, public filings, and assumptions about private assets. Managed assets are not the same as personal net worth, and a company’s sales are not the owner’s salary. Starbucks’ revenue is not Schultz’s income, and the Quantum Fund’s assets under management were not Soros’s personal money.

Another mistake is to treat the 2019 FEC complaint as proof that Schultz broke the law. The FEC reviewed the matter and voted 6-0 to dismiss the allegation in 2021. The complaint was dismissed, and the file was closed. Claims that go beyond that record should be checked against the FEC record itself before they are shared.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Are Howard Schultz and George Soros related?
No, Howard Schultz and George Soros are not related. Schultz was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1953, and Soros was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1930. There is no reliable public record of a family relationship between them.

2. Are Howard Schultz and George Soros business partners?
No, Howard Schultz and George Soros are not business partners. Schultz built his career at Starbucks and Maveron, while Soros built his career at Soros Fund Management and the Quantum Fund. No reliable public record shows a joint venture or shared company between them.

3. What is the connection between Howard Schultz and George Soros?
Their only documented connection is indirect, through American Bridge 21st Century. Soros donated $2 million to the group in the 2016 election cycle and $380,000 by April 2018. In February 2019, American Bridge filed an FEC complaint about Schultz as he explored an independent presidential run. The FEC dismissed the complaint 6-0 in 2021.

4. What is Howard Schultz’s net worth?
Howard Schultz’s estimated net worth is $3.5 billion, according to Celebrity Net Worth and Forbes. Forbes reported a real-time figure of $3.4 billion in October of the previous year. The figure moves with the Starbucks share price, so it is an estimate, not an official figure.

5. What is George Soros’s net worth?
George Soros’s estimated net worth is $8.6 billion, according to Forbes in September of the previous year. Celebrity Net Worth gives a figure of $9 billion. Soros has donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundations, including an $18 billion transfer in 2017, which reduced his personal fortune.

Conclusion

Howard Schultz and George Soros are two of the most influential business leaders of the last 50 years, but they reached the top by very different paths. Schultz, 74 in 2027, turned Starbucks from 17 stores into a global coffee company, with an estimated net worth of $3.5 billion. Soros, 97 in 2027, built a fortune in financial markets, made his name on Black Wednesday in 1992, and gave away more than $32 billion, leaving an estimated net worth of $8.6 billion.

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