Angelicoussis family office bets on Nvidia as it shifts into public stocks

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Maria Angelicoussis, head of the Angelicoussis Group and owner of Greece’s largest shipping fortune, has made substantial gains outside shipping through a family-office investment in Nvidia, as the group moves capital from private markets into listed shares.

Nicrone, the family’s private investment vehicle, has built a strategic stake in the US artificial-intelligence chipmaker in recent years. Bloomberg reported that the public-markets strategy has been led by former hedge fund manager Laura Lavers.

Nvidia is among Nicrone’s most important listed holdings under the new approach, according to people familiar with the matter. The firm, which does not disclose its equity positions, was set up four years ago with more than $1 billion in assets.

The size of the Nvidia stake and its current return have not been disclosed. Nvidia’s share price has roughly quadrupled since Lavers took over the UK arm of the family office about three years ago.

The move puts Nicrone among a wider group of ultra-wealthy family offices that have benefited from the boom in artificial intelligence. A representative for Angelicoussis, 44, who runs the family shipping group, declined to comment. A Nicrone representative did not respond to requests for comment.

Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates her fortune at about $13.5 billion.

From shipping to listed stocks

The Nvidia holding shows how the Angelicoussis family is trying to diversify after years of high freight rates and strong shipping earnings. Those rates were lifted first by pandemic supply-chain disruption and later by geopolitical tension, including this year’s conflict between the United States and Iran.

Public markets are not new to the family. Maria’s father, John Angelicoussis, who died in 2021 after more than three decades running the business, also invested in US stocks. He put part of the shipping group’s cash into American companies such as Apple. That portfolio was sold during the pandemic and the proceeds were used to establish Nicrone.

The Athens-based shipping company was founded by Maria’s grandfather almost a century ago. Nicrone has recently hired investment staff aimed at long-term value creation in listed equities, underlining the new strategy.

Nvidia in family-office portfolios

The Nvidia bet is not unusual among family offices. More than a dozen that publicly disclose US stock holdings owned Nvidia shares as of late June, including Sweden’s Rausing family and hedge fund founders David Tepper and George Soros.

The average Nvidia position among those offices was nearly $200 million, typically about 4% of their US equity holdings. The pattern reflects a broader shift by large private pools of capital into listed technology, as demand for semiconductors and AI infrastructure has surged.

A UBS survey of 307 family offices, managing an average of $1.3 billion, found that almost a third of their portfolios was invested in developed-market equities, the largest asset class.

For the Angelicoussis family, the change marks an expansion beyond shipping. Nvidia is now one of Nicrone’s most important listed positions.

Source: Newmoney.gr, citing Bloomberg

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