Ramaswamy was born inCincinnati, Ohio, toIndian immigrant parents. He graduated fromHarvard University with a bachelor's degree in biology in 2007. He earned aJ.D. degree fromYale University in 2013. Ramaswamy became an investment partner at a hedge fund, before founding Roivant Sciences in 2014. He also co-founded an investment firm, Strive Asset Management, in 2022.
Ramaswamy was raised in Ohio.[15] Growing up, Ramaswamy often attended the localHindu temple inDayton with his family.[16] Hisconservative Christian piano teacher, who gave him private lessons from elementary through high school, also influenced his social views.[3] He spent many summer vacations traveling to India with his parents.[13] In high school, Ramaswamy was a nationally ranked tennis player.[17]
In 2011, Ramaswamy was awarded a postgraduate fellowship to attend law school by thePaul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans.[21] Ramaswamy later said that by the time he attended Yale Law School, he was already wealthy from his activities in the finance, pharmaceutical, and biotech industries; he said in 2023 that he had a net worth of around $15 million before graduating from law school.[22] At Yale Law School, he befriended fellow Ohio native and futurevice president of the United StatesJD Vance.[26][21] He received aJuris Doctor degree fromYale University in 2013. In a 2023 interview, Ramaswamy said that he was a member of the campusJewish intellectual discussion societyShabtai while a law student.[27]
Ramaswamy worked at thehedge fund QVT Financial from 2007 to 2014.[3][30][31][32] He was a partner and co-managed the firm's biotech portfolio.[30][31][29] QVT's biotech investments under Ramaswamy included stakes in Palatin Technologies,[29] Concert Pharmaceuticals,[29]Pharmasset,[33][34] andMartin Shkreli'sRetrophin.[35] In a 2023 speech and in his bookWoke Inc., Ramaswamy called Shkreli, whose company had greatly increased the cost of a life-saving drug, both "brilliant" and apathological liar. He criticized theU.S. Department of Justice for prosecuting Shkreli, calling his fraud avictimless crime.[35]
Roivant Sciences and subsidiaries
Ramaswamy in 2017
In 2014, Ramaswamy founded the biotechnology firmRoivant Sciences; the "Roi" in the company's name refers toreturn on investment.[32] The company was incorporated inBermuda, atax haven, and received almost $100 million in start-up capital from QVT and other investors,[32] includingRA Capital Management,Visium Asset Management, and the hedge fund managersD. E. Shaw & Co. and Falcon Edge Capital.[29] Roivant's strategy was to purchase patents from larger pharmaceutical companies for drugs that had not yet been successfullydeveloped, and then bring them to the market.[32] The company created numeroussubsidiaries,[33][36] including Dermavant (focused on dermatology), Urovant (focused on urological disease), and China-based Sinovant and Cytovant, both focused on the Asian market.[33][37]
In 2015, Ramaswamy raised $360 million for the Roivant subsidiaryAxovant Sciences in an attempt to marketintepirdine as a drug forAlzheimer's disease.[31][38] In December 2014,[39] Axovant purchased the patent for intepirdine fromGlaxoSmithKline (where the drug had failed four previousclinical trials) for $5 million, a small sum in the industry.[32] Ramaswamy appeared on the cover ofForbes in 2015, and said his company would "be the highest return on investment endeavor ever taken up in the pharmaceutical industry."[32][38] Before new clinical trials began, he engineered Axovant'sinitial public offering (IPO);[32] it became a "Wall Street darling" and raised $315 million.[39] The company's market value initially soared to almost $3 billion, although at the time it only had eight employees, including Ramaswamy's brother and mother.[32] Ramaswamy took a massive payout after selling a portion of his shares in Roivant toViking Global Investors.[32] He claimed more than $37 million incapital gains in 2015.[32] Ramaswamy said his company would be the "Berkshire Hathaway of drug development"[3] and touted the drug as a "tremendous" opportunity that "could help millions" of patients, prompting some criticism that he was overpromising.[32]
In September 2017, the company announced that intepirdine had failed in its large clinical trial.[32][40] The company's value plunged; it lost 75% in one day and continued to decline afterward.[32] Shareholders who lost money included variousinstitutional investors, such as thepension fund of theCalifornia State Teachers' Retirement System.[32] Ramaswamy was insulated from much of Axovant's losses because he held his stake through Roivant.[32][39] The company abandoned intepirdine. In 2018, Ramaswamy said he had no regrets about how the company handled the drug.[39] In subsequent years, he said he regretted the outcome but was annoyed by criticism of the company.[32] Axovant thereafter attempted to reinvent itself as agene therapy company,[41] and dissolved in 2023.[32]
While campaigning for the presidency, Ramaswamy called himself a "scientist" and said, "I developed a number of medicines."[32]
In January 2021, Ramaswamy stepped down as CEO of Roivant Sciences and assumed the role ofexecutive chairman.[45][46] In 2021, after he resigned as CEO, Roivant was listed on theNasdaq via areverse merger with Montes Archimedes Acquisition Corp, aspecial purpose acquisition vehicle.[47] In February 2023, Ramaswamy stepped down as chair of Roivant to focus on his presidential campaign.[32][48]
Ramaswamy remains the sixth-largest shareholder of Roivant,[32] retaining a 7.17% stake.[4] During Ramaswamy's time running Roivant the company had never been profitable.[47]
Roivant Social Ventures
In 2020, when Ramaswamy was CEO of Roivant Sciences, the company established a nonprofit social-impact arm, Roivant Social Ventures (RSV), with his support.[48] An earlier iteration of RSV, the Roivant Foundation, was created in 2018.[49] Although Ramaswamy's presidential campaign centers on opposing corporatediversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) andenvironmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) initiatives,[50] RSV worked in support of pro-DEI and ESG initiatives, including promotinghealth equity and diversity within the biopharma and biotech industries.[48] While campaigning, Ramaswamy has downplayed his role in creating and overseeing RSV.[48]
Strive has branded itself as "anti-woke" and its funds as "anti-ESG"; Ramaswamy has claimed that the largest asset managers, such asBlackRock,State Street, andVanguard, mix business with ESG politics to the detriment of their funds' investors.[3][55][56]
Pension fund managers take account of ESG in the assessment of long-term risk, includingclimate risks, when making portfolio decisions.[3][57] Ramaswamy has crusaded against ESG[12][57] and emphasizes the doctrine ofshareholder primacy, famously articulated byMilton Friedman.[3] In his bookWoke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam and elsewhere, he has depicted private corporations' socially conscious investing as simultaneously ineffective and the greatest threat to American society.[3] He published a second book,Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence, in September 2022, a few months before announcing his presidential candidacy.[58]
Strive's flagship fund, theexchange-traded fund DRLL, launched in 2022 as an "anti-woke" energy sector index fund.[59][60] Ramaswamy said that Strive would push energy companies to drill for more oil,frack for more natural gas, and "do whatever allows them to be most successful over the long run without regard to political, social, cultural or environmental agendas."[61]
In October 2022, Ramaswamy held closed-door meetings with South Carolina lawmakers in a session arranged bystate treasurerCurtis Loftis; during the meetings, Ramaswamy pitched Strive to manage South Carolina pension funds.[62] In June 2023, afterThe Post and Courier reported on the meetings, the sessions were criticized as a form of unregistered lobbying; Ramaswamy's campaign manager denied any impropriety.[62]
Ramaswamy was Strive's executive chairman[3][53][54] before resigning in February 2023 to focus on his presidential campaign.[52][63]
Other ventures
In 2020, Ramaswamy co-founded Chapter Medicare, aMedicare navigation platform.[64] He participated in theOhio COVID-19 Response Team.[65]
He was chairman of OnCore Biopharma, a position he maintained atTekmira Pharmaceuticals when the two companies merged in March 2015.[66] He also was chair of the board ofArbutus Biopharma, a Canadian firm.[29]
In May 2024, Ramaswamy acquired a 7.7% stake inBuzzFeed,[67] later increased to 8.4%, making him the second-largestClass A shareholder in the company.[68] Soon after the acquisition, he sent a letter to the company's board of directors, in which he suggested they hire conservativepundits such asCandace Owens,Tucker Carlson, andBill Maher, as well as three "high-profile directors, with strong track business records in new media" whom he knew.[69]
Ramaswamy has made political contributions to both Democrats and Republicans. In 2016, he donated $2,700 to the campaign ofDena Grayson, a Florida Democrat running for Congress.[70] From 2020 to 2023, he donated $30,000 to theOhio Republican Party.[33] Ramaswamy considered running in the2022 U.S. Senate election in Ohio.[72]
Ramaswamy speaks with supporters at a town hall inDes Moines, Iowa.
On February 21, 2023, Ramaswamy declared his candidacy for theRepublican nomination for president of the United States in 2024 onTucker Carlson Tonight.[73] He publicly released 20 years of his individualincome tax returns and called upon his rivals in the primary to do the same.[32][54] His fortune had made up the vast majority of his campaign's fundraising.[47] From February to July 2023, Ramaswamy loaned his campaign more than $15 million; his campaign ended the second quarter of 2023 with about $9 million in cash on hand.[74] His fundraising lagged far behind Donald Trump's andRon DeSantis's, but exceeded most of the other Republican primary candidates'.[74]
During his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Ramaswamy sought to appeal toevangelicalChristian right andChristian nationalist voters, an important part of the Republicanbase, some of whom are reluctant or unwilling to support a non-Christian presidential candidate such as Ramaswamy, who isHindu.[16] In campaign stops and interviews, Ramaswamy had criticizedsecularism,[16] saying that the U.S. was founded onChristian values[16] orJudeo-Christian values;[75] that he shares those values;[16][75] and that hebelieves in one God.[16] While campaigning, Ramaswamy called himself an "unapologetic American nationalist";[76] he often attacked DeSantis but avoided directly criticizing Trump.[76][77]
Ramaswamy at a UFC fight in November 2024, with President-elect Donald Trump andElon Musk
In May 2023, Ramaswamy's campaign admitted that he hadpaid an editor to alter hisWikipedia biography before announcing his candidacy, but denied that the payment for edits was politically motivated.[78][79][80][81] The edits to the Wikipedia biography removed references to Ramaswamy's postgraduate fellowship from thePaul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, as well as his involvement with theOhio COVID-19 Response Team.[79][80]Paul andDaisy Soros are the elder brother and sister-in-law, respectively, of businessman and social activistGeorge Soros, who has been the subject of numerousconspiracy theories among American conservatives and rightists.[82][80] Ramaswamy's campaign denied attempting to "scrub" his Wikipedia page and argued the edits were revisions of "factual distortions".[79][80]
In January, after finishing fourth in theIowa caucuses, Ramaswamy ended his campaign and endorsed Trump.[83][84] For the remainder of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Ramaswamy served the Trump campaign as a political surrogate,[85] representing the Trump campaign and attending campaign events in place of the candidate.[86][87]
Department of Government Efficiency
A week after the 2024 election, President-electDonald Trump announced that Ramaswamy and businessmanElon Musk had been tasked to lead the newly proposedDepartment of Government Efficiency (DOGE).[88] However, Ramaswamy never worked with the DOGE team during the Trump administration, as on Inauguration Day, he dropped out of DOGE to focus on a potential2026 Ohio gubernatorial campaign.[89] The departure was reportedly due to friction between Ramaswamy and other DOGE leadership and staff, as well as Ramaswamy stating American work culture "venerated mediocrity over excellence".[90][91][92]
2026 Ohio gubernatorial election
On February 15, 2025, Ramaswamy filed to enter the2026 Ohio gubernatorial election.[93] He officially announced his run on February 24.[94] On the same day, when Ramaswamy launched his campaign for Ohio governorship, he got the crucial endorsement from President Donald Trump, who posted “Vivek is also a very good person, who truly loves our Country, He will be a GREAT Governor of Ohio, will never let you down, and has my COMPLETE AND TOTAL ENDORSEMENT!”.[95]
According to political analysts, President Trump's early backing of Ramaswamy's candidature for Ohio governor is expected to immensely help his campaign and likely aimed to avoid a rough primary in Ohio.[95] Ramaswamy also got support from President Trump's senior adviser Elon Musk, who posted on social platform X “Good luck, you have my full endorsement,” quoting Ramaswamy’s video announcing his run for Ohio governorship.[96] On May 9, 2025, Ramaswamy received the official endorsement of theOhio Republican Party's State Central Committee, marking the earliest the state Republican Party has ever endorsed a non-incumbent gubernatorial candidate.[97][98]
On January 6, 2026, Ramaswamy announced that he had selected Ohio State Senate PresidentRob McColley as his running mate for lieutenant governor.[99] On January 7,Ohio GovernorMike DeWine endorsed Ramaswamy's candidacy.[100]
Later that month, Ramaswamy’s campaign ended its contract with a private security firm after a bodyguard assigned to his family was arrested on federal drug trafficking charges; it was later disclosed that several guards provided by the firm were not properly licensed to work as armed security in Ohio.[101]
In 2023,The New York Times described Ramaswamy as ananti-woke candidate.[73] Ramaswamy's August 2021 book, theNew York Times bestseller,Woke Inc described his view of the so-called "modern woke-industrial complex".[113] Ramaswamy gained recognition in right-wing circles by opposing corporate E.S.G. programs that advance political, social and environmental causes in businesses.[73] In his presidential campaign, he asserted that "faith, patriotism and hard work" are being replaced by "new secular religions like Covidism, climatism and gender ideology."[73]
Ramaswamy has generallyopposed abortion and called for abortion to be left to states while being against a national ban.[119] He has often equated abortion to murder.[120] In the past, he has supported state-levelsix-week abortion bans, with exceptions forrape,incest, and danger to the woman's life.[119][121]
Ramaswamy has supported the reforming of theH-1B visa, a work visa program for non-US citizens, noting problems with the current lottery-based system and suggesting it should instead be based on merit.[142][143][144]
Ramaswamy said he would not have used U.S. military force againstIran.[145] In November 2023, he condemnedAzerbaijan's military operation against the Armenian population ofNagorno-Karabakh and said that the U.S. should block all its military aid to Azerbaijan.[146]
He expressed support forTaiwanese independence,[150] and floated the idea of "putting a gun in every Taiwanese household" to deter an invasion byChina, but said the U.S. should not militarily defend Taiwan from Chinese attack after the U.S. has achieved "semiconductor independence", which he pledged to achieve by 2028.[151][152]
Israel-Palestine
Ramaswamy ispro-Israel and calls Israel "a Divine nation, charged with a Divine purpose".[153] Ramaswamy has said Israel should feel free to oppose thetwo-state solution.[154][155]
AfterHamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Ramaswamy said that in his view, "Israel should be able to make the decisions of how it defends itself" while suggesting that the U.S. should provide a "diplomaticIron Dome" for Israel.[156] Regarding the U.S. aid to Israel, he said that it should be contingent upon Israel's plans for defeating Hamas and its actions inGaza.[157]
Climate and energy
Although he said he is not aclimate denier,[4] Ramaswamy said in a Republican primary debate that "the climate change agenda is a hoax"[158][159] and asserted, falsely, that "more people are dying from climate policies than actual climate change."[160][161]
He criticized what he calls the "climate cult" and said that as president, he would "abandon the anticarbon framework as it exists" and halt "any mandate tomeasure carbon dioxide".[162]
In 2022, he urgedChevron to increase oil production[163] and criticized its support for acarbon tax.[4] Ramaswamy's company holds a 0.02% stake in Chevron.[163]
Ramaswamy opposedsubsidies for electric vehicles.[140] In his arguments, Ramaswamy used incorrect statistical claims about the history of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. His critics said that when he cited the upsides of climate change and fossil fuels, such as reduced cold-related deaths, cheap energy, and faster plant growth, he ignored larger downsides, such as increases in other weather-related disasters, deaths, and plant damage, and ignored that there are now less-polluting sources of cheap energy.[164]
Promotion of conspiracy theories
In Republican primary debates and campaign appearances, Ramaswamy often repeated and promoted anarray of right-wing conspiracy theories[165][159] and falsehoods.[166] In the days after theJanuary 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, he condemned the attack, but argued that social media bans on Trump violate theFirst Amendment.[15][167] Later, while running for president, Ramaswamy repeatedly claimed that the January 6 attack "was an inside job", a claim supported by no evidence and refuted by numerous investigations.[165][168]
He has asserted that "big tech" played a role in stealing the 2020 election, referring the Hunter Biden laptop story being suppressed by the mainstream media and social networks, while also claiming that the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory was "the Democratic Party's platform" to benefit from demographic shifts.[165][15]
When asked about some of his past remarks, Ramaswamy frequently denied making the comments or claimed to have been misquoted, even when those denials were belied by recordings, transcripts, or extracts from his writing.[166]
Personal life
Apoorva and Vivek Ramaswamy in January 2024, campaigning inDes Moines, Iowa
Ramaswamy's wife, Apoorva Tewari Ramaswamy, is alaryngologist and surgeon; they met atYale, when he was studying law and she was studying medicine.[3][172] They married in 2015 and have two sons and a daughter.[3][173] Ramaswamy has a younger brother, Shankar,[3] who worked for him at Axovant and later co-founded Kriya Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company.[174]
In 2023, Ramaswamy's campaign mentioned his net worth to be around $1 billion.[178][47] In February 2026,Forbes estimated Ramaswamy's net worth to be $2.2 billion; his wealth comes from biotech and financial businesses.[179][180][181]
^"FREOPP Leadership: Vivek Ramaswamy".FREOPP. July 13, 2020.Archived from the original on November 18, 2021. RetrievedJuly 18, 2023. attended underfunded public schools through 8th grade
^Schulte, Becky (July 25, 2015)."July 2015".St. Xavier High School E-news (Mailing list).St. Xavier High School.Archived from the original on July 26, 2015. RetrievedJuly 26, 2015.
^abHerper, Matthew; Vardi, Nathan (September 28, 2015)."Boy in the Bubble".Forbes.Archived from the original on February 27, 2023. RetrievedFebruary 26, 2023.
^"Trump, Musk endorse Ramaswamy in Ohio governor's race".The Hill. February 25, 2025. RetrievedFebruary 28, 2025. President Trump and his senior adviser Elon Musk have thrown their support behind former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's gubernatorial bid in Ohio.
^"'Woke, Inc.' author Vivek Ramaswamy enters White House race".AP News. February 21, 2023.Archived from the original on July 13, 2023. RetrievedJuly 13, 2023.Ramaswamy, 37, formally launched his longshot bid by decrying what he called a "national identity crisis" that he claims is driven by a left-wing ideology that has replaced "faith, patriotism and hard work" with "new secular religions like COVID-ism, climate-ism and gender ideology."
^"Vivek Ramaswamy vs. Identity Politics".National Review. March 6, 2023.Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence
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