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Meet man who overtook Gautam Adani on global rich list, came to US at 21, didn't know English, his name is..., net worth is Rs...
Thomas Peterffy (R) overtook Gautam Adani on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. (File)
The United States is known as the 'land of opportunity' as millions of immigrants pour into the country each looking for a better life and wider opportunities. The US has scores of immigrant billionaires who built their fortune from scratch, with some being broke and lacking basic language skills when they arrived in the country.
One such individual is Thomas Peterffy, a Hungarian-American billionaire who has overtaken Indian industrialist Gautam Adani on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as the 21st richest person on the planet. Who is Thomas Peterffy?
Born during the second world war in Hungary in 1944 in Hungarian capital Budapest, Thomas Peterffy moved to the US in 1965 at the age of 21, as he realized that there was no way to build a better life for himself in the Eastern European country, which had been under Soviet occupation since the 1956 uprising.
Peterffy came to the US in search of better opportunities, but was hindered by several impediments as he was essentially broke and struggled with communication because he did not know English. However, despite the hurdles, Peterffy persevered and managed to land a job at an engineering firm in New York, and later volunteered to learn computer programming because he felt it was easier than learning English. How Thomas Peterffy became one of America's wealthiest men?
Peterffy's first introduction to Wall Street was as a computer consultant at Aranyi Associates, a company engaged in stock and bond valuation programming. In 1977, over a decade after he came to the US, Peterffy started his first business venture and bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) aka the American Stock Exchange for options trading.
Within a year, Peterffy began working on automation to improve the chances of making profitable bids on contracts, and in 1982, established a marketing firm, Timber Hill, which used handheld computers developed by him to track and calculate trades.
However, Peterffy's big break came in 1995 when he founded Interactive Brokers, which is today the world's largest online brokerage firm, offering electronic trading facilities for individual investors. The company, headquartered in Greenwich, went public in 2007, leading to a surge in Peterffy's wealth as he owns a three-quarter stake in the firm via IBG Holdings.
Peterffy started Interactive Brokers in 1995, which provides electronic trading facilities for individual investors. In 2007, he took the company public. Peterffy, who is 90 years old, now lives in Palm Beach, Florida. His company is headquartered in Greenwich. He has a nearly three-quarter stake in it through his own company IBG Holdings. Thomas Peterffy net worth
Today, Thomas Peterffy, 90, who serves as the chairman of Interactive Brokers, is one of the wealthiest individuals in the US and the 21st richest globally, boasting a net worth of $75.8 billion. The veteran stock broker saw his wealth increase by a whopping $22.6 billion in 2025, and has overtaken Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani on the global rich list.
Notably, Peterffy is considered as being close to US President Donald Trump and had donated $100,000 to Trump's presidential campaign in 2016. He also owns a 18% stake in Newsmax, a pro-Trump news channel, through his holding company Conyers Investments.
