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What is Thomas Peterffy’s Net Worth?
Thomas Peterffy is a Hungarian-born American billionaire businessman with an estimated net worth of around $34.8 billion, making him one of the richest people in the world.
He is the founder, chairman, and largest shareholder of Interactive Brokers, a major electronic brokerage firm. Peterffy owns around 75% of Interactive Brokers through his holding company IBG Holdings LLC.
He received around $1 billion from Interactive Brokers’ IPO in 2007 and has collected over $3 billion in dividends from the company over the years.
Over his lifetime, Peterffy has paid around $2 billion in taxes from his earnings.
Here’s the breakdown of MacKenzie Scott’s net worth:
Name: | Stephen Schwarzman |
Net Worth: | $38.8 Billion |
Date of Birth: | Feb 14, 1947 |
Profession: | Novelist |
If you’re curious about how we estimate a celebrity’s net worth, you can check out our methodology here.
Early Life
Thomas Peterffy was born on September 30, 1944 in Budapest, Hungary during a Russian air raid in World War II. His father emigrated to the United States after the failed 1956 Hungarian Revolution against Soviet rule.
In 1965, at age 21, Peterffy left his engineering studies in Hungary and immigrated to the U.S. with little money, joining his father in New York City. He did not speak English when he first arrived.
Career
Peterffy began working as an architectural draftsman designing highways. He taught himself computer programming after his firm acquired a computer, realizing his coding skills could provide career opportunities.
In 1977, after years of developing financial modeling software, Peterffy purchased a seat on the American Stock Exchange for $36,000 to trade equity options. He consistently worked to automate trading processes, introducing innovations like handheld computers on the trading floor in the 1980s.
Peterffy founded his first company T.P. & Co. in 1978, which became Timber Hill Inc. in 1982. He pioneered automated stock trading and built the first fully integrated electronic market making system in 1986.
In 1993, Peterffy created Interactive Brokers as an electronic brokerage firm. The company went public in 2007, netting him around $1 billion. Interactive Brokers is now one of the largest online brokers, with Peterffy owning around 75% as chairman.
Personal Life
Peterffy has been married once and divorced in 1992. He has 3 adult children.
Peterffy lives in Palm Beach, Florida after selling his 80-acre Connecticut estate for $21 million in 2015. He is an avid equestrian and major donor to Republican political causes and candidates.
Ashley Roberts is the founder of Real-Time Billionaires List. She founded this platform because she likes to know how much celebrities are actually making. She is always curious why these people can make much more money than the ordinary person.
With a Bachelor’s degree in finance, she is skilled at financial analysis and understands numbers related to wealth. Most of the articles on this site are edited by herself before publishing.
