Former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin Wants to Buy TikTok - How Much Is He Worth?
Published March 14 2024, 4:56 p.m. ET
Should a former member of a presidential cabinet be able to own a social media giant, one that might be spying on every user? That’s not up for us to decide. It may not even be up to the guy that wants to buy it, Steve Mnuchin.
Before he was a member of the Cabinet of former President Donald Trump, Steve Mnuchin was an investment banker for Goldman Sachs and a film producer. While the banking gig obviously made him quite a bit of dough, his film work was also quite successful. Now he wants to buy TikTok.
What is Steve Mnuchin’s net worth?
According to multiple reports, and his 2020 Public Financial Disclosure Report, Steve Mnuchin is worth more than $400 million. One of the richest members of the former administration, his income in 2019 alone was reported between $5,438,693 and $31,303,649.
The bulk of the former treasury secretary’s wealth comes from his time at Goldman Sachs, where he worked from 1985 to 2002. He rose to the rank of chief information officer. His father, Robert Mnuchin, was a general partner at Goldman Sachs as well.
Steven Mnuchin
77th United States Secretary of the Treasury, investment banker, film producer
Net worth: $400 million
Steven Mnuchin served as the 77th United States Secretary of the Treasury from Feb. 13, 2017 through Jan. 20, 2021. He has worked for decades as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, as a hedge fund manager, and a film producer.
Birth Name: Steven Terner Mnuchin
Birthdate: Dec. 21, 1962
Birthplace: New York City, New York
Mother: Elaine Terner Cooper
Father: Robert E. Mnuchin
Spouse: Kathryn Leigh McCarver (m. 1992-1999); Heather deForest Crosby (1999-2014); Louise Linton (m. 2017)
Children: Emma Mnuchin, Dylan Mnuchin, John Mnuchin (with Crosby), a daughter born in late 2023 (with Linton)
Education: Yale University
After leaving Goldman Sachs Steve worked for multiple hedge funds. In 2002 he started at ESL Investments, which is owned by his Yale roommate Edward Lampert. Secretary Mnuchin founded the Dune Capital Management hedge fund in 2004, a fund that invested in two Trump properties, the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Honolulu and The Trump International Hotel in Chicago. He also worked as Chief Executive Officer at SFM Capital Management.
In addition to the banking and hedge funds, he began producing films under Dune Entertainment. Some of the films the company produced include one of the highest-grossing films of all time, Avatar, and other high-earning films like the X-Men franchise, The Lego Movie, Mad Max: Fury Road, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Lego Batman Movie, Wonder Woman and dozens more.
TikTok may be for sale.
On Mar. 13, 2024, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would force ByteDance to divest from TikTok, or the app may be banned in the United States. The next day on CNBC’s Squawk Box the former Trump official said, “I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold. It’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok.”
Former Secretary Mnuchin also said, "This should be owned by U.S. businesses. There’s no way that the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China."
TikTok currently has 170 million American users and was valued at $220 billion in its last funding round in 2023. The New York Times values the company at $50 billion.
On Mar. 12, 2024 Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Brandon Carr said, "TikTok presents a clear and present danger to U.S. national security that is categorically different than any other social media company out there. I've got my fair share of concerns with other big tech companies, but TikTok's different," during an appearance on Mornings with Maria Bartiromo.
