George Soros has given away $18bn, the bulk of his personal wealth, to his Open Society Foundations, bringing his charitable giving over his lifetime to around $32bn.

The legendary hedge fund investor, has been working to transfer the billions he has made in finance over the past several years to OSF as he made arrangements for its long-term future. Mr Soros’s foundations are the second-largest private charity after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with a 2017 budget of $940.7m.

Mr Soros’s foundations have played a key role in promoting liberal democracy and building institutions and civil society across ex-communist eastern Europe for almost three decades. Countless officials in governments across the region benefited from Soros Foundation grants to study at western universities.