Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin took direct aim at rising socialist sentiment in America, telling progressive politicians to “read a damn history book” while warning that high taxes and poor public services are driving Wall Street out of blue states.
Speaking at a Goldman Sachs symposium, the billionaire hedge fund manager detailed how he believes fiscal mismanagement in cities like New York is accelerating a financial migration toward business-friendly hubs in Florida and Texas, according to audio obtained exclusively by Fortune.
“I believe Citadel will be a principal player in financial services for far longer than [New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani] will be mayor,” Griffin said according to Fortune. “We intend to be here for decades. And he will be here for a few years.”
“How have we ended up with so many 20- and 30-year-olds who actually think socialism is the path to prosperity?” Griffin asked, while noting World Bank data showing that when China shifted toward free-market policies, it lifted roughly 800 million people out of poverty over a 40-year period.
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“It’s the greatest success story in the history of humanity,” he continued, saying that “whether it’s Bernie Sanders, whether it’s Mamdani,” to “read a damn history book for once and then tell us how to run our country.”
Griffin’s comments come after similar remarks he made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year. The CEO has also publicly criticized Mamdani over taxes, wealth distribution and the city’s business climate, as well as a viral advertisement that called out Griffin’s New York City penthouse.
Shortly after the pandemic, Citadel relocated its headquarters to Miami, where the firm is constructing a 1.7 million-square-foot office tower in the city’s downtown financial district.
During the Goldman Sachs symposium, Griffin also questioned the corporate hype surrounding artificial intelligence, arguing that companies often confuse genuine technological advances with marketing buzzwords.
At a dinner with top CEOs “about two years ago,” Griffin said many executives were enthusiastic about artificial intelligence, but he was skeptical.
“I couldn’t help myself. I’m like, ‘Let’s go around the table and share stories about how AI is transforming your business,’… not one involved AI.”
“There is a technological revolution happening, of which AI is a component of the story,” he told Goldman Sachs executive Ashok Varadhan Mahajan, “but it’s just a piece.”
Griffin also warned that a Chinese blockade of Taiwan would trigger an immediate economic shock in the United States by cutting off access to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, and shrinking the U.S. economy by an estimated 8% within six months.
“As an American I get frustrated by this,” he said. “Simply put, we go into a Great Depression in the blink of an eye. Unlike any we’ve seen before… everything freezes.”
Citadel did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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