Shipping Magnate Worth $13.5 Billion Rides AI Boom With Nvidia

By Ben Stupples (Bloomberg) — Maria Angelicoussis, the magnate behind Greece’s biggest shipping fortune, has scored big gains outside her maritime empire with a bet on technology giant Nvidia Corp. after her family office shifted away from private markets.

Nicrone, the billionaire Angelicoussis Group owner’s private investment firm, has made a strategic allocation to the listed artificial intelligence chipmaker during recent years as part of a move into public equities led by former hedge fund executive Laura Lavers, people familiar with the matter said.

Nvidia has ranked among Nicrone’s top listed holdings as part of the shift under Lavers, the people added, asking not to be identified as the details are private. The firm, which doesn’t disclose its stock investments, was set up four years ago with more than $1 billion in assets.

While the exact stake size and current gain couldn’t be determined, Nvidia’s share price has more than quadrupled since Lavers became head of the family office’s UK branch three years ago, putting Nicrone among a wave of money managers for the ultra-wealthy riding the AI boom.

A representative for Angelicoussis, 44, chief executive officer at her namesake business, declined to comment, while another for Nicrone didn’t respond to requests for comment. The maritime magnate has a net worth of about $13.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Nicrone’s Nvidia bet gives an insight into how the Angelicoussis family are diversifying their wealth following several bumper years of soaring freight prices in the fallout from global supply chain disruptions including Covid-19 pandemic, as well as this year’s conflict between the US and Iran.

Public markets investments were an area favored by Maria’s father, John, who died in 2021 and led his family’s business for more than three decades. He invested proceeds from the Athens-based shipping company founded by Maria’s grandfather almost a century ago into US stocks such as Apple Inc. 

The portfolio was sold during the pandemic, with proceeds used to establish Nicrone, which has recently sought to hire investment staff for “long-term value creation” in public equities. Ben Goldsmith also joined in 2024 as head of public capital after previously working at Zeno Equity Partners, a London-based stock-picking firm that focuses on long-term investments, according to his LinkedIn profile.

More than a dozen other family offices that disclose their US stock holdings had stakes in Nvidia at the end of June, including those for Sweden’s Rausing dynasty as well as hedge fund founders David Tepper and George Soros, according to an analysis of registry filings by Bloomberg. The average size of their Nvidia stakes was almost $200 million, typically representing about 4% of their US stock bets.

Other ship owners that have built up family offices within the past decade include two branches of Oldendorff dynasty, with operations spanning their native Germany and the UK, according to registry filings. 

A UBS Group AG survey this year of 307 family offices overseeing $1.3 billion on average found almost a third of their portfolios were tied up in developed market equities, the largest allocation.

© 2026 Bloomberg L.P.

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