How Much Can You Earn with Mathematics? Billionaires vs. Academic Mathematicians

The question of why anyone should study mathematics comes up often. Sometimes its applications turn out to be remarkably valuable — and some people have even turned their mathematical skills into enormous fortunes.

Mathematics Career Earnings at the Top: Billionaires Who Used Math

Here are a few examples of those who converted their knowledge into billions:

James Simons — net worth over $30 billion (died in 2024), founder of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies. Simons built his career in differential geometry and topology. Before entering finance, he was a mathematics professor and developed methods that he later applied to modeling financial markets.

Ken Griffin — $30 billion, founder of Citadel. He studied economics but built his empire on mathematical models and statistics, applying them to financial markets.

David Shaw — $8 billion, founder of D.E. Shaw & Co. He holds a PhD in computer science and specialized in computational mathematics. Shaw was among the first to apply complex algorithms and computational methods to stock market trading.

Robert Mercer — $1 billion+, former CEO of Renaissance Technologies. Mercer holds a PhD in computer science, specialized in artificial intelligence, and used mathematical models to build profitable trading algorithms.

Edward Thorp — approximately $800 million, best known as the inventor of mathematical methods for beating casinos (including card counting in blackjack). Thorp later applied probability theory and statistics to finance, founding a highly successful hedge fund.

What Mathematics Career Paths Look Like in Academia

Admittedly, none of these individuals are pure mathematicians — they left academic mathematics and made their billions in finance, even if mathematics was the tool they used. But what about those who stayed true to academic mathematics? Earnings there are considerably more modest, though respectable by the standards of science — reaching into the several millions of dollars. Here are some examples with rough estimates:

Terence Tao — the contemporary “Mozart of Mathematics,” Fields Medal laureate, estimated earnings of $1–5 million. He specializes in harmonic analysis, differential equations, and number theory. He earned his PhD at age 20 and is a professor at UCLA.

Andrew Wiles — estimated net worth of $1–2+ million. He became famous for proving Fermat’s Last Theorem. He holds a PhD in number theory, currently teaches at Oxford, and was awarded the Abel Prize.

Cédric Villani — approximately $1–2 million, Fields Medal laureate for his work in differential equations and statistical mechanics. He studied at the École Normale Supérieure and is one of France’s leading mathematicians.

Yakov Sinai — approximately $1–2 million, Abel Prize laureate for his contributions to dynamical systems and mathematical physics. Sinai received his mathematical education at Moscow State University, where he began his research career.

How Mathematics Degree Earnings Vary Across Specializations

Manjul Bhargava — approximately $1–3 million, Fields Medal laureate. He specializes in number theory and algebraic geometry. He earned his PhD at Princeton, where he continues his research.

Pierre-Louis Lions — approximately $1–2 million, Fields Medal laureate for his contributions to differential equations and the calculus of variations. He is a professor at the Collège de France.

Enrico Bombieri — approximately $1–2 million, Fields Medal laureate. A specialist in number theory and mathematical analysis, he earned his PhD from the University of Milan.

Mathematics Career Paths: Which Route Is Right for You?

So, if the goal is billions, the path runs through applying mathematics in other fields — finance, technology, and beyond. But even within academic mathematics, significant financial success is achievable: earning millions of dollars while becoming one of the great minds of our time is no small thing.

Which do you think is harder? Earning within mathematics, earning outside of it — or is mathematics simply not about money at all?