Patrick Soon-Shiong did not grow up imagining he would one day be the wealthiest person in one of the world’s most glamorous cities. He was born in Port Elizabeth, now known as Gqeberha, South Africa, to Chinese immigrant parents who had fled China following Japan’s wartime invasion, and he came of age under the shadow of apartheid. Yet that complicated beginning would eventually give way to one of the most remarkable wealth stories to emerge from the African continent in modern times. Today, the South African-born biotech entrepreneur and physician has claimed the title of Los Angeles’ richest person, with an estimated net worth of $8.4 billion, equivalent to roughly R139.1 billion.
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Soon-Shiong built his fortune through an extraordinarily lucrative career as a biotech entrepreneur, one that drew on his training as a surgeon and his relentless drive to push the boundaries of modern medicine. He is widely regarded as the richest doctor in the world. His ascent did not happen overnight. It was built on decades of disciplined scientific work, calculated business decisions, and a willingness to bet on himself at moments when others might have stepped back.
After leaving UCLA in 1991, Soon-Shiong founded a biotechnology company called Abraxis BioScience, where he developed Abraxane, a revolutionary drug used in the treatment of breast, lung, and pancreatic cancers. The drug received FDA approval in 2005 and European approval in 2008 for breast cancer cases where chemotherapy had proven ineffective. It was a scientific breakthrough that would also become a commercial one. By 2009, Abraxane was generating $315 million in annual revenue.
The deals that followed cemented his billionaire status. Soon-Shiong sold APP Pharmaceuticals to Fresenius Medical Care for $4.6 billion in 2008, and later sold Abraxis BioScience to Celgene for $2.8 billion in 2010. Those two transactions alone gave him the financial foundation to pursue a far wider portfolio of investments and ventures. In 2010, he also acquired Magic Johnson’s 4.5% ownership stake in the Los Angeles Lakers, making him one of the most prominent stakeholders in one of the NBA’s most storied franchises.
His empire has since expanded well beyond pharmaceuticals and professional basketball. In 2018, Soon-Shiong struck a $500 million deal to acquire the Los Angeles Times, bringing the paper under local ownership for the first time in nearly two decades, alongside the San Diego Union-Tribune. The acquisition positioned him not just as a business figure but as a media owner with significant influence over public discourse in Southern California.
His investment portfolio spans healthcare, real estate, and media, with substantial holdings in immunotherapy firm ImmunityBio, where he controls an 83% stake. ImmunityBio reached a major milestone in 2024 when the FDA approved its lead drug Anktiva for treating a common form of bladder cancer, triggering a surge in the company’s share price. That approval underscored how far Soon-Shiong’s ambitions have carried him from his early days as a surgeon with a vision, toward becoming one of the defining figures in American oncology and biotech.
Most recently, Soon-Shiong has expanded into sports ownership even further, acquiring a Major League Volleyball expansion team in Los Angeles, with plans to leverage both the Los Angeles Times Media Group and his production company NantStudios to promote the franchise. It is the kind of move that reflects not just his wealth, but his philosophy of building ecosystems rather than isolated investments.
For Africa, his story carries a particular resonance. He is a product of a continent that too often watches its most talented minds leave and make their mark elsewhere. The Chan-Soon-Shiong Family Foundation has remained connected to South Africa, committing grants to fund vaccine research and manufacturing in his birth country. It is a reminder that his journey, however far it has taken him from Port Elizabeth, has never fully left its starting point behind.
At a time when Africa’s diaspora is reshaping global conversations about wealth, innovation, and representation, Patrick Soon-Shiong’s rise to the top of Los Angeles’ wealth rankings stands as both a personal triumph and a broader statement about what is possible for those who carry the continent’s story with them into the world.
