Born on 9 August 1985, Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy started his journey as an entrepreneur and managed to transform himself into one of the top billionaiares of America. He was born in Cincinnati to an Indian couple. He completed his education from Harvard University and Yale Law School.

His company Strive Asset Management, is an investment firm positioned in opposition to environment, social and corporate governance (ESG) initiatives. In his campaigns he was seen claiming that the US is in the middle of secular religions like COVID-ism, climate-ism, and gender ideology. He is a vocal critic of ESG.

Ramaswamy has also called for “cutting the cord” with China over trade unless it stops stealing US intellectual property and hacking US companies’ data. He said he would bar Chinese officials from buying land in the US and stop their financial donations to American universities. He has said he would tell China not to “mess with Taiwan” before 2028, as the US builds up its own semiconductor industry, and would cut a deal with Russia to allow it to keep parts of Ukraine in order to weaken its alliance with China.

Ramaswamy is the co-founder of an exchange-traded fund called DRLL that would engage in shareholder activism to encourage oil and gas companies to “drill more and frack more.” He has called for reforming the permitting system to allow more oil, gas, coal and nuclear power in the US and opposes subsidies for electric vehicles.

What he’s said: “No. 1 is unshackle the US energy sector, drill, frack, burn coal, embrace nuclear. And those are words that sometimes in certain circles, you can’t say out loud right now.”

Updated: 22 Aug 2023, 08:34 AM IST