So in 2000, Berggruen sold his houses, put his art collection in storage and gave away or sold most of his possessions, including his car. He says his decision to live a rootless existence wasn't a means of dodging taxes; he says he pays them in the U.S.
The investor, who signed a pledge promoted by fellow billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to donate at least half of their wealth, says he'll give away all of it eventually.
"Everything I do now is about growing the pot to have more to give away," he says.
He has never married and says he is not interested in having children. Berggruen has been photographed at charity and fashion events arm in arm with a series of actresses and models, including Gabriella Wright, a British actress.
'A Disaster'
In the past five years, Berggruen has poured his earnings into several projects to solve the world's problems that have sometimes gone astray. In 2006, a subsidiary of Berggruen Holdings invested $85 million and helped secure a $100 million line of credit, as well as a $20 million loan from the state of Oregon, to build the largest ethanol plant on the West Coast. He believed, erroneously he now says, that ethanol would be a growing source of clean energy despite the chemicals and dirty fuels used to transform corn into fuel. The ethanol company filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Construction delays, plant outages, a sulfate-contaminated ethanol shipment and the narrowing spread between corn and ethanol prices doomed the project.
"It was a disaster," Berggruen says.
His investment to reduce world hunger also flopped. In 2008, Berggruen announced a plan to buy 24,700 acres of uncultivated land in Latin America and Southeast Asia and turn it into farms to increase food production. Although he already owned almost 30,000 acres of farmland in Australia, he put any further investment on hold after discovering what any farmer could have told him.
"There are a lot of variables out of the control of the people in the business, meaning commodity prices and climate and land issues," he says. "I didn't think I had come up with a sensible business plan."
Berggruen's investment in urban renewal in Newark has been more promising. He commissioned Meier to design a retail, office and residential complex that will include subsidized housing for teachers.
"Nicolas is a godsend to this project and to Newark," says Stefan Pryor, the city's deputy mayor for economic development. "This is one of the most complex projects in the city-maybe in the whole country-and it wouldn't have been possible without the steps Nicolas undertook to make it happen."
Berggruen is also pushing for governance reform in California, where he lives for several weeks a year, staying at the Peninsula hotel in Beverly Hills. With the state struggling with a $27.6 billion budget shortfall and cutting welfare programs for children, Berggruen last year brought together a panel of boldface names to offer solutions.
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, billionaire Eli Broad, former governors Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger and former U.S. secretaries of state George Shultz and Condoleezza Rice formed the Think Long Committee for California. In an attempt to reduce political gridlock, the group will call for giving more power to local governments, reforming the ballot initiative process and broadening the state's tax base.