For years, the Angelicoussis family built its fortune on ships, freight rates and the global movement of goods. Now, part of that wealth is finding its way into one of the biggest investment themes of the decade: artificial intelligence.
Maria Angelicoussis, Greece’s biggest shipping magnate, is worth about $13.5 billion. Her family office, Nicrone, has been building a larger presence in public equities, with Nvidia emerging as one of its top listed holdings, according to people familiar with the matter.
The move offers a glimpse into how some of the world’s wealthiest families are repositioning their portfolios after years of strong returns from their core businesses.
From Ships to Silicon
Angelicoussis built her wealth through the family’s shipping empire, but Nicrone represents a different approach to managing that fortune.
The family office was established around four years ago with more than $1 billion in assets. Under Laura Lavers, a former hedge fund executive who took charge of Nicrone’s UK operations three years ago, the firm has increasingly focused on public markets.
And Nvidia has been a major part of that shift.
The exact size of Nicrone’s Nvidia position is not publicly known, nor is its current profit. But Nvidia’s shares have more than quadrupled since Lavers took over the UK branch, making the investment particularly notable.
For a family office managing billions, this isn’t simply about owning a popular AI stock. It reflects a broader decision to put capital behind companies expected to benefit from long-term structural changes.
Why Nvidia Stands Out
Nvidia has become one of the clearest ways for investors to gain exposure to the AI boom.
Its chips power many of the data centers being built to train and run increasingly sophisticated AI models. As technology companies continue pouring money into AI infrastructure, demand for Nvidia’s processors has surged.
That has translated into extraordinary stock-market performance.
For family offices, Nvidia offers something particularly attractive: exposure to a major growth theme through a highly liquid public company.
That matters when compared with private investments, where capital can remain locked up for years and valuations can be harder to assess.
Nicrone’s move therefore looks less like a simple bet on one stock and more like part of a broader portfolio transition.
A Familiar Strategy for Billionaire Families
Angelicoussis isn’t alone.
Bloomberg’s analysis of regulatory filings found that more than a dozen family offices with disclosed US stock portfolios held Nvidia at the end of June.
These included family offices linked to Sweden’s Rausing dynasty, as well as those associated with hedge fund billionaires David Tepper and George Soros.
The average Nvidia position among these family offices was close to $200 million, typically representing around 4% of their US equity portfolios.
That gives some perspective on how wealthy investors are approaching the AI trade.
They aren’t necessarily putting everything into Nvidia. Instead, the stock can form one piece of a much larger portfolio spanning different sectors, markets and asset classes.
The Shipping Fortune Is Being Diversified
The timing is also interesting.
The Angelicoussis family’s wealth has benefited from several strong periods for the shipping industry, including the surge in freight rates following the pandemic and global supply chain disruptions.
Those gains created a large pool of capital that could be redeployed outside shipping.
That is exactly where family offices can play an important role.
Instead of allowing wealth to remain concentrated in the business that created it, families can gradually diversify into public equities, private markets, real estate, credit and other investments.
For Angelicoussis, Nicrone appears to be taking that route.
A Strategy That Started With Her Father
There is also a historical connection.
Maria’s father, John Angelicoussis, who died in 2021, was already a believer in public markets.
He had invested proceeds from the family’s shipping business into US companies including Apple.
That portfolio was eventually sold during the pandemic. The proceeds helped establish Nicrone, which has since been rebuilding its investment capabilities.
The family office has also been hiring investment professionals focused on long-term value creation in public equities.
Ben Goldsmith joined in 2024 as head of public capital after previously working at Zeno Equity Partners, a London-based investment firm focused on long-term stock picking.
So the shift into public equities appears to be becoming a more deliberate part of the family’s wealth strategy.
Why Family Offices Are Looking at Public Markets
The Angelicoussis story reflects a much larger trend.
A UBS survey of 307 family offices this year found that developed-market equities accounted for almost a third of their portfolios, making them the largest allocation.
There are several reasons for that preference:
- Liquidity: Public stocks can generally be bought and sold far more easily than private investments.
- Global exposure: Family offices can gain access to companies and industries far outside their home markets.
- Transparency: Listed companies provide regular financial disclosures and market pricing.
- Scalability: Large pools of capital can be deployed without having to build an entire private investment operation.
- Structural themes: Investors can gain direct exposure to trends such as AI, semiconductors, energy and healthcare.
For a family whose wealth is already heavily linked to a cyclical industry such as shipping, this diversification can be particularly valuable.
The Bigger AI Trade
The interesting part of this story isn’t just that one billionaire owns Nvidia.
It is who else is buying it.
Family offices have historically had considerable freedom to invest differently from traditional institutions. They can take long-term positions, tolerate periods of volatility and build portfolios around themes they believe could play out over many years.
AI has increasingly become one of those themes.
Nvidia sits at the center of that opportunity because its business is closely tied to the infrastructure required to build the next generation of AI systems.
But the same popularity that makes Nvidia attractive also creates a risk.
The more investors crowd into the AI trade, the more expectations become embedded in valuations.
For family offices, the challenge isn’t simply identifying the winning technology. It is deciding how much of the portfolio should be exposed to it and what price makes sense.
From Freight Rates to AI
There is a bigger lesson here for investors.
The Angelicoussis family’s wealth was created in a very different part of the economy. Ships, trade routes and freight rates drove the original business.
Now, some of that capital is being redirected toward artificial intelligence and public technology companies.
That is what makes the Nvidia investment particularly interesting.
It shows how billion-dollar family offices are not necessarily staying tied to the industries that created their fortunes. They are increasingly using those fortunes to participate in the next generation of growth.
Shipping created the wealth.
AI may be shaping where some of that wealth goes next.
And Nvidia is increasingly becoming one of the companies sitting at that intersection between old-world wealth and the new technology economy.