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Walmart heir Lukas Walton’s $15bn bet on the environment

With an estimated worth of $39bn, he wants to use market mechanisms to save the oceans

All eyes in Builders Vision’s Chicago office, in the fashionable Fulton Market district, are trained on a large screen showing a coiled serpent eating its own tail. On a video link, the day’s keynote speaker is enthusing how, contrary to first impressions, the ouroboros’s self-destruction is actually part of its eternal recreation.

From their seats in the 16th-floor office’s lounge area, the audience follows the speaker’s every word, lapping up her invocation to “rewild our imaginations”, nodding at her assertion that “every tradition was once an innovation”.

The workshop participants all seem cut from the same cloth: bright-eyed, luxe sneakers and slacks, Silicon Valley refitted for the Midwest. You would be hard-pressed to pick out the billionaire.

And that’s just how Lukas Walton wants it. Grandson of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, the largest retail chain in the US by sales, the tall, curly haired 39-year-old is estimated to be worth more than $39bn, but until now has stayed out of the spotlight.

Walton, giving his first-ever media interview to the Financial Times, is open about his reticence. According to the world’s 42nd richest person, it avoids people “leading with their assumptions” of him. This quietness extends to his hobbies: he likes trail biking because “it’s one of those places I can’t be on a phone call”.

He is now changing tack. In the past 11 years he has ploughed $15bn of his own money into an impact investment fund, supporting projects that bring both financial and environmental returns — a sum that has not before been made public. The capital is earmarked for high-potential ventures in the three priority areas — ocean conservation, regenerative agriculture and clean energy — that are the focus of Builders Vision, which Walton founded eight years ago and which in effect serves as his family office.

His logic for speaking out starts with a conviction that the natural world is in trouble. He argues that the most effective solution is to harness market innovation for good, with the profit motive delivering unintended philanthropic gains. Such a strategy takes much more money than even his deep pockets allow. Tackling climate change, for example, is estimated by the OECD to require a minimum investment of $6.3tn per year.

That is why Walton wants his wealthy peers to understand what he is doing, hence his break with practice and decision to talk to the media. If the world’s 9,000-plus family offices could be persuaded to follow Builders Vision’s lead and commit to invest for a “more humane and healthy planet”, as he says, then large-scale capital could feasibly begin to flow.

“The opportunities are out there,” he says in soft yet certain tones when we speak in a side office before the workshop starts. “[The finance gap] is not for lack of pipeline. But people first need to realise that the environment is industry, it’s infrastructure, it’s financial products, it’s not simply trees.”

Walton’s confidence in the efficacy of markets to save the world is unsurprising, given his family story.

Walmart — originally named Wal-Mart Discount City — opened its first store in the small Arkansas town of Rogers. Since 1962, its strategy of offering a wide range of products at low prices has made it a symbol of American capitalism, with more than 2.1mn employees across 19 countries and net sales exceeding $648bn in 2024. Walton has no direct role in the company’s operations — and firmly declines to discuss its day-to-day management — but his interest in market capitalism predates the inheritance he received in 2005 after his father’s untimely death in a plane crash. His family owns 45 per cent of the company.

His philanthropic bent and interests in social and environmental issues also have a family flavour. John Walton, his father, was a vocal campaigner for greater autonomy and tailored learning in the public school system, helping finance the “charter school” system in its early days. Likewise, Alice Walton, his aunt and the world’s wealthiest woman, is renowned for her support for health and the arts. Protecting rivers, lakes and oceans is a staple of Walton family philanthropy; last year, the family’s foundation issued $106mn in environmental grants, including for stopping agrichemical run-off in the Mississippi River and for restoring degraded stream systems in the Colorado river basin.

Walton’s environmental outlook is shaped, in part, by his own life experience. As a preschooler, he developed a rare cancer, which was cured — according to family lore — thanks partly to his mother feeding him an all-natural diet including homegrown vegetables. To this day, he is “constantly reminded” of how lucky he is to be alive, he says: “My parents taught me the good habits that have kept me around. My mom basically raised me out of her garden, and that way I got to learn where our food comes from.”

As he tells it, these early lessons about nature’s role in human wellbeing have fired his imagination. After graduating from Colorado College in economics and environmental science, he went to Reykjavik to learn about Iceland’s pioneering efforts in renewable energy.

If there is a difference between Walton and his grandfather, it is one of ends, not means. Like Sam Walton, Lukas is looking to sell the world a product, only in his case it is green hydrogen and rare earth recycling, not diapers or dog food. “Starting with food and agriculture, I want to put my money to work and I saw there was a space for innovative, flexible capital,” he says. “My gut feeling all along has been to engage the business community because of its size and scale.”

Walton’s lifestyle retains a strong element of his grandfather’s Midwestern pragmatism. Old Sam stayed put in his small-town home of Bentonville, Arkansas, and continued to drive a battered Ford pick-up long after making his millions. His grandson, who frequently cycles to work through the downtown Chicago traffic, drove a clapped-out Subaru Forester for years; only on becoming a father did he upgrade (albeit to an equally unglamorous Volvo SUV). 

“The Walton family has always kept fairly low-key right through the different generations,” says Charles Fishman, author of The Wal-Mart Effect, a book about the retailer’s economic influence. “They aren’t flashy the way that, for instance, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez are flashy.” 

The result is not without its contradictions: a billionaire who wants to use the wealth that he gained from market capitalism to resolve many of the problems to which those same capitalist markets are frequently linked. To square this circle, Walton is careful not to assign blame. Whether seller or buyer, his logic runs, we are all actors in a system that needs reforming.

Central to Walton’s belief in activating the market to drive “strong positive social and environmental outcomes”, as he puts it, is that such efforts can never be charitable. Scale will only come when investors see returns that match or ideally exceed the market average. 

Talk of outcomes clearly energises him. On the wall in Builders Vision’s lobby, next to upbeat slogans such as “Shifting markets and minds FOR GOOD” and “Building a more HUMANE AND HEALTHY PLANET”, hangs a large photo montage. It’s part community groups sporting beaming smiles, part large pieces of shiny, complicated tech.

The wall is designed to illustrate some of the more than 300 grantees, 100 fund managers and more than 50 portfolio companies that Builders Vision has supported to date, and as we walk along it Walton points to a random selection of investees that catch his eye, sharing a potted back-story for each. GoodLeap develops software systems for smart domestic energy solutions. Growing Home is Chicago’s only certified-organic farm, where Walton periodically volunteers. Coral Vita restores degraded reefs with coral grown in high-tech labs.

Most of the examples are classic scale-ups: too small and risky for institutional investors to pay them much heed, too established to access seed funding or angel investment. Focusing on this “missing middle” offers family offices such as Walton’s, with patient capital and a high-ish appetite for risk, a relatively wide field to pick from, says Noelle Laing, Builders Vision’s chief investment officer. Worldwide, impact investing accounts for around $1.57tn in investable assets, according to the Global Impact Investing Network, although most is controlled by banks and other large-scale financial institutions.

But Walton’s theory of change requires going one step further than picking individual investments: it requires a “systems approach” that pulls in reform-minded organisations in an effort to collectively shift given sectors on to a more impact-friendly footing.

Take oceans. The economic added value of marine activities such as aquaculture, coastal tourism and renewable marine energy could reach $9.8tn by 2050, almost four times their current rate, according to the OECD.

To accelerate this “blue economy”, Builders Vision last year provided a $70mn credit-risk guarantee for a novel nature-bond project in the Bahamas. The Inter-American Development Bank, which co-developed the initiative, projects that it will unlock $124mn for marine conservation over the next 15 years, without adding to the Bahamas’ national debt.

Despite the comparatively early-stage nature of many of his investments, Walton insists that Builders Vision is delivering on its goal of positive financial returns. Pushed for examples, he cites Clear Frontier, a Nebraska-based scale-up that purchases and then leases farmland for organic agriculture. The idea for the business came from Justin Bruch, a fifth-generation farmer from Iowa, who pitched the idea to Walton in 2019.

After the two had “worked up on a napkin” the essential business model, Walton sank an initial $50mn into the venture, giving Bruch the starting capital he needed to raise “several hundred million dollars” more. The venture now manages more than 20,000 acres of chemical-free arable land.

“His capital for me was really the stake in the ground,” says Bruch. “But to have someone like Lukas, who sees the world the way he does, say, ‘This is something I believe in and it’s important’ — to be honest, that was probably more important.”

Reuben Munger, chief investment officer of Vision Ridge, a sustainable investment fund, similarly credits Walton’s early investment with having a catalytic effect. In 2020, Builders Vision provided $25mn to support the acquisition by Munger’s fund of Fjord1, a Norwegian business operating electrified ferries. After increasing its fleet size by 50 per cent, Vision Ridge exited the business last year on what Munger describes as “attractive terms”. 

“It’s incredibly hard to raise a first fund, especially in the impact space, which most investors assume is concessionary,” Munger says. “So having someone publicly back the idea that investing in impact can actually be attractive helps remove a layer of this unnecessary scepticism.”

Such scepticism-fighting is well-timed. Over the next couple of decades, the offspring of Baby Boomers (born 1946-64) are set to inherit close to $124tn, according to research consultancy Cerulli Associates. But persuading conservative family offices to join Walton’s pro-impact movement will take more than a handful of glittery case studies. As Walton himself says, the default within wealth management remains to practise “social and environmental good over there” with philanthropy and to pursue “as much return as possible over here” with investments.

To better align the two, Walton’s family office arranges regular private investment get-togethers for fellow heirs and investors to share Builders Vision’s strategy.

It is a winning tactic, says Byron Trott, a financier who has advised Walton for several decades. Reflecting on a recent “collaborative gathering” about the blue economy, he says attendees came away with a strong desire to “lean in more” to Walton’s approach. “While Lukas’s vision for a theme like oceans might seem very narrow, it turns out that many families are focused on similar topics,” says Trott, who has been nicknamed the “billionaires’ banker” for his high-end client list. “And they can obviously do a lot more together than they can individually.”

Another vocal backer of Walton’s vision is Howard W Buffett, grandson of Warren Buffett. Author of the management book Social Value Investing, Howard sees “no reason” why all rich people couldn’t follow suit. “I know lots of families that have tried to integrate this approach into their work,” he says. “In part, it comes down to how innovative you’re willing to be, as sometimes there’s risk-taking that comes with it.” 

For those of a cautious disposition, his advice is to start small. Think of “your system” less as a global industry like food or energy, he recommends, and more as your local community, say, or a nearby watershed.

Even then, “very few” family offices are likely to follow Walton’s all-in strategy, Trott concedes. He says that “Lukas isn’t looking to convert people to a 100 per cent club,” rather his interest is simply to prove that impact and profit are compatible bedfellows.

Walton confirms as much. His primary ambition, he says, is for his peers to “acknowledge their agency” and, ideally, to exercise it fully. And what does he mean by “fully”? He can only speak for himself, he says diplomatically, describing his definition as being “generative with my capital, both for Builders Vision and the wider field”.

Progressive as that sounds, many in the charity world have doubts about Walton’s for-profit approach.

Just because pairing philanthropy and finance is doable, that doesn’t make it “desirable”, says Tobias Jung, director of the Centre for the Study of Philanthropy & Public Good at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He says the two approaches are “fundamentally different” in their purpose and practice, which matters for two reasons. First, impact investment’s place within existing economic logics makes it “comparatively timid”. Second, integrating philanthropy into markets can obscure the latter’s role in harming the planet.

For Bridget Kustin, an economic anthropologist, the issue is less about principle than practice. “Deeply well-intentioned and aspirational” as many wealthy people may be, she says, the proportion using their assets for meaningful impact remains very small. The main obstacle, suggests Kustin, who is working on a project about trends in private wealth ownership at the Saïd Business School in Oxford, is loss aversion.

Still, she praises Walton for “putting his head above the parapet”. The secrecy typical of family offices, she argues, often leads to “enormous inefficiencies”. By sharing his approach, Walton not only increases understanding but also makes it easier for others to adopt similar methods.

Back above the Chicago skyline, another video is running in the Builders Vision lounge; this time it’s of a lone man dancing eccentrically in a public park. After an age, a brave bystander steps out to join him, followed by two more; before long, the park is one happy mass of jiving bodies. Sometimes, the facilitator notes, leaders need to “stand alone and look ridiculous”. Ambitious as Walton’s mission may sound, ridiculous it is not.

Tech-backed nuclear groups raise $1bn as investors bet on power-hungry AI

Two companies backed by Bill Gates and Sam Altman capitalise on view nuclear energy will be crucial to run data centres

Two companies backed by Bill Gates and Sam Altman have raised more than $1bn amid a surge in investor optimism that nuclear energy will help power the artificial intelligence revolution.

TerraPower, a private company founded by Gates, said on Wednesday it had raised $650mn from investors, including attracting funding for the first time from the venture capital arm of US chipmaker Nvidia.

It follows a $460mn equity raise closed this week by Oklo, the Altman-backed listed developer of small modular reactors, a new type of nuclear reactor that generates about a third or less power of the power of standard models.

Analysts said companies are capitalising on a positive funding environment created by recent deals struck by the likes of Google, Meta and Microsoft with nuclear developers and government support. This has pushed up the share prices of nuclear energy-related stocks to record levels and is generating momentum in private financing, they said.

Chris Levesque, TerraPower’s chief executive, told the Financial Times the funding was further proof that nuclear technology would be an important source of the power that industry needs for the roll out of AI.

TerraPower has raised more than $2bn in private financing and won a $2bn grant from the US government to co-fund the design and construction of its first nuclear reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming, which is cooled by liquid sodium rather than water.

Some existing investors, including Gates and HD Hyundai, a South Korean conglomerate, also participated in the latest fundraising, said TerraPower.

“This will fund TerraPower’s operations,” said Levesque, a former officer on a nuclear submarine, in an interview.

He added that the company would finish its plant design this year and that construction at Kemmerer had been ongoing for more than a year.

TerraPower is in a race with other US nuclear reactor developers such as Oklo, as well as Chinese and Russian groups to deploy and prove their SMR designs can be commercially successful.

They are responding to a surge in interest from technology companies and utilities seeking reliable electricity supplies to fuel power-hungry AI data centres.

After two decades of almost flat growth, electricity demand in the US is forecast to rise by as much as 25 per cent by 2050, compared to 2023 levels, according to projections by consultancy ICF.    

“The global increase in demand, especially for 24/7 electricity to power industry and AI, along with the environmental benefits, and supply constraints of alternatives, has created a market premium for nuclear energy,” said Adam Stein, analyst at the Breakthrough Institute think-tank.  

“Investment opportunities for nuclear energy technology developers and the related supply chain are very strong right now,” he said.  

On Monday, Oklo said it had raised $460mn in funds through an equity raise, $60mn more than was initially guided by the company.

Altman, who was an early stage investor in Oklo and became chair in 2015, stepped down from the role in April to avoid a conflict of interest before the company began talks with Open AI about signing an energy agreement.

Small reactor developers including Oklo, X-energy and Newcleo have raised at least $2bn since early 2024, according to an FT analysis of public records and data from PitchBook and BloombergNEF.

In recent months, OpenAI told investors that ChatGPT Teams, which smaller companies use, generated roughly $200 million last year from about 1 million subscribers. The company projected ChatGPT Teams to generate $800 million by the end of this year from 4 million subscribers, and $8.5 billion by the end of 2030 from 22 million subscribers.

By 2030, OpenAI expects both Teams and Enterprise to have 38 million subscribers and generate $14.7 billion in revenue, or about a quarter of the $62 billion in revenue OpenAI projected to get from ChatGPT that year.

Ahead of Schedule

But OpenAI’s enterprise business may be running ahead of schedule, and its fast growth is in line with the booming growth of ChatGPT’s consumer version and the products sold by some of OpenAI’s biggest competitors.

OpenAI recently said that there were more than 3 million paid users of ChatGPT Enterprise, Teams or subscriptions purchased by a university, up from 2 million in February and 1 million in September last year.

An OpenAI spokesperson said that in the past two weeks, the company made ChatGPT Enterprise subscriptions cheaper for firms that agreed to spend additional money on newer “advanced features and models.”

Microsoft salespeople asked the company’s finance department if they could match the OpenAI discount but were rebuffed. As a result, the customer told Microsoft it was choosing to buy the models through OpenAI instead.

The discounts customers get on ChatGPT Enterprise are proportional to the amount they agree to spend on other features, the spokesperson said.

In some cases, those discounts effectively lowered the price of ChatGPT Enterprise from $30 to around $25 per user per month, according to the two people who spoke to the company.

Separately, OpenAI has also offered some firms similar discounts on prices of its AI models if they agree to spend several million dollars over more than a year, one of the people said.

That move is less surprising, as the price of AI models sold through APIs has rapidly fallen across the industry due to fierce competition. OpenAI, Anthropic and other firms have cut the price of cutting-edge models more than 90% over the past year.

OpenAI Chief Commercial Officer Giancarlo Lionetti declined to comment on specific discounts but said OpenAI has been steadily making its models more efficient and “we want to pass on savings to our customers.”

He added that large enterprises were choosing OpenAI over competitors for reasons other than discounts, such as “visibility into our product road map” and early access to new tools such as Codex.

Customers such as Notion and Salesforce have opted to buy AI models from OpenAI directly rather than from Microsoft because of the access they gain to OpenAI engineers. Firms such as Intuit and Fidelity have chosen Microsoft because they have existing cloud contracts with the company.

Undercutting Microsoft

More recently, a software company that had purchased OpenAI models through Microsoft over the past year was in talks to sign a new agreement to spend $8 million on the models over the next three years, according to a Microsoft salesperson involved in the talks. But that firm notified Microsoft that OpenAI had offered it a 20% discount on the same models, reducing the cost over three years by around $1 million, this person said.

Microsoft salespeople asked the company’s finance department if they could match the discount but were rebuffed, this person said. As a result, the firm told Microsoft it was choosing to buy the models through OpenAI instead, according to this person.

In another recent case, a private equity firm told Microsoft salespeople it was considering purchasing around 3,000 seats of Microsoft 365 Copilot, according to a different Microsoft salesperson, which would cost over $1 million annually without any discounts.

But the firm told the Microsoft salespeople it had an offer from OpenAI to get the same number of ChatGPT Enterprise seats at a 20% discount, which would have brought the total annual cost down to around $800,000. In that case, Microsoft couldn’t match OpenAI’s discounted rate, this person said. The private equity firm hasn’t made a final decision on which vendor to select, this person said.

Microsoft typically offers discounts to its largest customers when they buy software and cloud services in bulk for a commitment of at least several million dollars a year, in what are known as consumption agreements, according to Microsoft employees and executives at large corporate customers. Even then, Microsoft will typically only offer around 5% to 10% off the sticker price, these people said.

A Microsoft spokesperson did not have a comment.

According to a Bernstein report based on Agility's latest research, lingering economic uncertainty, Donald Trump's trade policy, and yoyo-ing financial markets are weighing on the minds, and wallets, of the world's wealthy, especially in the U.S.

LONDON – Since the pandemic ended, ultra high-net-worth customers have been the driving force behind luxury sales as the less-affluent, aspirational shoppers put the brakes on spending.

But the enthusiasm of those high-net-worth individuals may be waning, according to a report by Bernstein based on a survey by Agility Research and Strategy, a consulting firm that focuses on the habits of high-net-worth individuals, or HNWI.

This will be a blow for the luxury groups and retailers which have been courting the HNWI cohort for years with special trips, events and “money-can’t-buy” experiences as overall luxury spending has slowed.

Bernstein said macroeconomic uncertainty has started to “weigh on the spending intentions” of the high-net-worth group, with global economic uncertainty lingering amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policy, and the yoyo-ing financial markets.

Agility’s data, it added, shows a “sharp deterioration” in luxury spending intention amongst the wealthiest consumers, and across income groups, in the first half of the current year.

As reported, the latest Saks Global Luxury Pulse survey shows that consumers’ optimism about the U.S. economy is in decline, driven by economic uncertainty and market volatility. According to Saks, America’s affluent have been affected by market volatility, flip-flopping tariffs, and the prospect of a recession, which is impacting their spending on luxury.

According to the Bernstein report, Chinese customers are opting for expensive jewelry over ready-to-wear, and have generally become more discerning shoppers.

It added that the share of Agility’s interviewees in China who intend to purchase jewelry in the next 12 months has increased consistently since 2023, even as interest in fashion and rtw fell. Demand for handbags seems to have stabilized, the report said.

Despite the decline in spend among the rich, there is an upside for the brands, and for some consumers who’ve been waiting for years to get their hands on a Birkin, a Ferrari Purosangue SUV or a Rolex Daytona.

Bernstein said that slowing demand will likely result in shrinking waiting lists. “Luxury — even in the ultra-high-end — is still cyclical. Brands like Hermès, Ferrari and Rolex “bank excess demand when times are good and draw on them when times are tougher.”

The brands have been bracing themselves for harder times, according to Bernstein.

Hermès has already “balanced leather inventories” to a lower level of demand growth, particularly in Asia. In addition, first-half auction prices for smaller handbag models such as the Birkin and Kelly 25 have settled at around 1.8 times that of their retail price.

The 1.8 figure is “slightly higher” than in 2020, but below peak pandemic multiples of double, or triple, the retail price.

The price of larger models such as the Birkin 30 or the Kelly 28 have slipped further, reflecting a structural shift towards smaller handbags, although they’re still hovering around 1.3 times the retail price.

At Hermès, demand continues to exceed supply, while the company has also started to move beyond leather to build rtw and jewelry into “standalone engines for future growth,” Bernstein said.

Oaktree co-founder Howard Marks calls on China to open up to foreign investors

Distressed debt specialist outlines upbeat view of world’s second-largest economy

Howard Marks, co-founder of $200bn alternatives manager Oaktree Capital Management, has called on China to open up more “asset classes” to foreign investors as he set out an upbeat view of the world’s second-largest economy.

“I’m very optimistic about the Chinese economy in the long run,” Marks said on a panel at Shanghai’s flagship annual financial conference, citing the country’s infrastructure and the size of its middle class.

He proposed that China “expand the range of investment asset classes that are open to foreign investors”.

Marks’ comments come at a time when escalating trade tensions between the US and China have cast a chill over businesses in the mainland.

China relaxed some restrictions on foreign financial groups at the end of Donald Trump’s first term, leading to Wall Street giants such as Goldman Sachs and BlackRock launching new asset and wealth management ventures in the country.

But overseas asset managers struggled to gain traction during pandemic shutdowns that led to the mainland being cut off from the wider world and highlighted the differences within a state-dominated financial system.

Foreign exposure to many Chinese assets remains limited, including in a domestic corporate bond market where foreign ownership was just 0.29 per cent at the end of last year.

The forum in Shanghai’s Lujiazui, China’s largest mainland financial centre, comes at a critical moment for policymakers as they seek to restore confidence against the backdrop of a property market slowdown and a fragile trade truce with the US.

Marks’ visit comes shortly after JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon said he would “deepen” engagement with China, according to a state media readout of a meeting with vice-premier He Lifeng.

A year earlier, Dimon said parts of his bank’s business had “fallen off a cliff” in China, where the stock market has struggled with years of lacklustre performance, though supportive measures in September boosted prices.

Marks has made his name over the past five decades by diving into markets — among them high-yield bonds, distressed debt and China — when others were unwilling to do so.

At a time when others described it as “uninvestable”, Marks told the Financial Times in 2022 that he got comfortable with investing in China after years of high-level discussions with authorities and assurances that the rule of law would be upheld. 

Three years ago, Oaktree seized Evergrande’s “Project Castle” property development in northern Hong Kong shortly after the world’s most-indebted developer imploded.

Los Angeles-based Oaktree, one of the oldest specialists in chasing companies for unpaid debts, was co-founded by Marks in 1995 and since then has grown to manage more than $203bn in assets. 

Earlier this month, Marks told the FT that global investors were starting to “question whether US exceptionalism is a little less exceptional”, but added that there were doubts as to whether markets in Europe and Asia offered a meaningful alternative. “Europe still has sclerotic growth and a very high level of regulation, and China is still complicated,” he said. “Where else can large amounts of capital be deployed?”

“The proof of the pudding is in the tasting,” he said at the end of the Lujiazui panel. “People will gain confidence if markets perform for them, not based on promises but based on performance.”

Company that borrowed billions from investors collapses into insolvency over unpaid Dutch tax

Lars Windhorst’s Tennor Holding, which borrowed billions from investors and was once at the heart of the German financier’s business empire, has been declared bankrupt at the request of Dutch tax authorities.

An Amsterdam court on Tuesday appointed a liquidator for the Netherlands-based entity, according to public filings. Dutch tax authorities asked a court to wind up the company over an unpaid €5.3mn claim, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Tennor was for more than a decade Windhorst’s main investment company and the linchpin of a business empire fuelled by heavy borrowing and complex financing arrangements involving illiquid stocks and bonds. 

The Dutch holding company borrowed billions of euros from investors including France’s H2O Asset Management, ploughing the proceeds into trophy assets that included Hertha Berlin football club and Italian lingerie maker La Perla.

Tennor Holding has not published accounts for years, however, and Dutch regulators suspended its former auditor for two years because of negligence in auditing its books. The company last reported about €3bn of debt and other liabilities in unaudited financial statements for 2020.

Tennor Group, an umbrella term Windhorst uses to describe his overall investment business, told the Financial Times that since 2022 it had “reorganised in a new and separate corporate structure” and that Tennor Holding had been “for the last few years an inactive company with no revenues and no employees”.

Tennor Group added that it had “disputed” the claim from Dutch tax authorities, and that Windhorst and the group “remain committed to keep paying down its debt”.

Tennor Holding has faced multiple claims in recent years from aggrieved creditors in courts in London and Amsterdam. Windhorst’s businesses also suffered when its main backer H2O, a star of French investment that at its peak managed €30bn in assets, became embroiled in a scandal in 2019 due to its investments linked to the financier.

Windhorst first shot to fame while still a teenager in the 1990s, when he was widely hailed as a business “wunderkind” and forged a close bond with then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. But in the following decade he endured a bruising downfall, encompassing corporate and personal bankruptcies, that culminated in a suspended jail sentence in 2010.

In recent years, Windhorst has shifted to cutting new deals out of Swiss entity Tennor International, which has in at least one instance bought assets out of insolvency from a company previously owned by Tennor Holding.

Tennor International has also been subject to lawsuits from creditors in the past year, however.

A formal insolvency process at Tennor Holding could shed further light on where money raised from Windhorst’s investors was spent.

In 2023, Windhorst was presented with evidence under cross-examination in London’s High Court that he had taken substantial loans from companies such as Tennor Holding, while billing expenses such as private jet costs and luxury hotels to his companies.

Windhorst told the court that “all these activities are related to business”, adding that he worked “seven days a week” and that all his entertainment expenses were client-related.

H2O last week lost an appeal at France’s highest administration court against a record fine levied by the country’s financial regulator in 2022 in relation to its dealings with Windhorst. The investment firm, which was also reprimanded by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority last year, faces a Paris court hearing next week in a lawsuit from investors claiming damages due to investments linked to the financier.

Summary

• Anduril and Rheinmetall to develop Barracuda and Fury drones for Europe
• Partnership aims to enhance European military capabilities with US technology
• Importance of drones highlighted by Ukraine war, focus on rapid production and deployment

PARIS, June 18 (Reuters) - U.S. drone-maker Anduril and German defence giant Rheinmetall (RHMG.DE), opens new tab said on Wednesday they will partner to build aerial drones for European markets, in a sign of Europe leveraging American technology to boost military capabilities.

The companies will jointly-develop European variants of Anduril's Barracuda and Fury aerial drones, as well as exploring opportunities to build solid rocket motors, which are used to propel missiles and rockets.

"By integrating Anduril's solutions into Rheinmetall's European production setup and digital sovereignty framework, we’re building on that foundation to bring new kinds of autonomous capabilities into service, ones that are quick to produce, modular, and aligned with NATO’s evolving requirements," said Armin Papperger, CEO of Rheinmetall.

In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and amid concerns over U.S. defence commitments under President Donald Trump, many European nations have pledged to increase military spending.

However, Europe continues to depend heavily on U.S. defence firms to fill critical capability gaps - not only in traditional systems like fighter jets and missiles, but also in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, low-Earth orbit satellites and drones.

California-based Anduril is part of a wave of U.S. defence technology companies - including AI firm Palantir and Elon Musk's SpaceX - that are challenging traditional defence manufacturing giants with faster innovation.

The war in Ukraine has shown the increasing importance of drones in modern warfare. The Barracuda is designed to be cheap, fast to build and easy to launch in large numbers and can act like a cruise missile. Fury is a more expensive, stealthier, longer-range drone designed for combat and surveillance.

"This is a different model of defense collaboration, one built on shared production, operational relevance, and mutual respect for sovereignty," said Brian Schimpf, CEO of Anduril Industries.

"Together with Rheinmetall, we’re building systems that can be produced quickly, deployed widely, and adapted as NATO missions evolve."