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| Quick Facts | Mikhail Prokhorov |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Mikhail Prokhorov |
| Net Worth | $13.5 billion (Celebrity Net Worth estimate) |
| Born | Moscow, Russia |
| Education | Moscow Finance Institute |
| Known For | Norilsk Nickel; Onexim Bank; former owner of the Brooklyn Nets |
| Source of Wealth | Metals and mining, investments, professional sports |
| Notable | Ran for President of Russia in 2012, winning around 8% of the vote |
Mikhail Prokhorov has a net worth of $13.5 billion, according to Celebrity Net Worth. The Russian businessman made his fortune from metals and mining, above all Norilsk Nickel, which he acquired in one of post-Soviet Russia’s most disputed privatisation deals and sold at almost exactly the right moment. A ski-trip scandal, a $13 billion exit, the Brooklyn Nets and a run for the Russian presidency have made him one of the most recognisable oligarchs of his generation.
Early Life
Mikhail Prokhorov was born in Moscow. He studied at the Moscow Finance Institute and went into banking as Russia’s economy opened up in the early 1990s, a move that introduced him to the partner with whom he would build his fortune.
That partner was Vladimir Potanin. Together they built Onexim Bank into one of the most powerful financial institutions in 1990s Russia, and in the middle of the decade the bank became a vehicle for acquiring the country’s biggest industrial assets. The partnership would last more than a decade before ending in one of Russia’s most public business break-ups.
Career
Onexim Bank and Norilsk Nickel
Prokhorov’s defining deal came in 1995, during the loans-for-shares programme, under which the Russian government exchanged stakes in major state companies for loans. The prize was a control block in Norilsk Nickel.
The auction has been disputed ever since. The minimum bid was $170 million. A rival bidder offered $355 million, more than double the minimum, but was disqualified by Onexim Bank, which was itself running the auction. A bidder affiliated with Onexim then won the control block for $170.1 million, barely above the minimum. Critics of the loans-for-shares programme have long pointed to the Norilsk auction as an example of how the sales were conducted; supporters argued it was the only practical way to privatise vast state assets at speed. The bidding facts are not in dispute, but the fairness of the process remains fiercely debated in Russia.
Prokhorov and Potanin turned Norilsk Nickel into a modern mining company, and by 2007 its annual revenue had passed $17 billion. The metals boom made the company enormously valuable — and Prokhorov one of the richest men in Russia.
Courchevel
In January 2007 came the episode that would reshape his business career. On 9 January, during a ski trip to the French resort of Courchevel, French police raided his hotel with around 50 officers and detained 26 people, including Prokhorov, seizing around $65,000 in cash. He spent four days in custody before being released without any criminal charges.
The allegations that followed have never been proven, and no charges were ever brought against him. Prokhorov said the women travelling with him were models and friends, and denied any wrongdoing. Legally it ended with his release and no case to answer. Its real consequence was commercial: the scandal accelerated the break-up of his partnership with Potanin, and the two men began dividing their shared empire.
The Rusal Sale
The split produced the deal that defined Prokhorov’s fortune. In April 2008 he sold his roughly 25% stake in Norilsk Nickel to UC Rusal, the aluminium company controlled by Oleg Deripaska, in a deal valued at more than $13 billion: $7.14 billion in cash — $4.44 billion at closing and $2.7 billion deferred, with $1.82 billion of the deferred sum later converted into Rusal shares — plus a stake of around 14% in Rusal itself.
On 15 September 2008, Lehman Brothers collapsed and the global financial crisis swept through Russia’s commodity fortunes. Deripaska’s fortune, which had stood at $28 billion, fell sharply as his holdings crashed. Prokhorov, by contrast, was holding cash. The liquidity from the Rusal sale left him unusually strong, and in 2009 Forbes named him the richest man in Russia, with a fortune of $9.5 billion.
The Brooklyn Nets
Prokhorov’s next move took him into American professional sport. In 2010 he bought the New Jersey Nets, investing $223 million for an 80% stake in the team and a 45% stake in the arena. He moved the franchise to Brooklyn, where it became the Brooklyn Nets.
He sold out between 2018 and 2019 in a deal valuing the team at around $2.35 billion and the arena at around $1 billion — roughly $3.5 billion combined. It was one of the most successful sports investments of the decade, turning a $223 million outlay into a multi-billion-dollar exit.
Politics and Later Years
In 2012, Prokhorov ran for President of Russia as an independent candidate against Vladimir Putin. He won around 8% of the vote, finishing third. He did not run again, and his political career effectively ended with that single campaign.
He sold his remaining Rusal shares just before the United States imposed sanctions on the company in 2018 — once again exiting ahead of a crisis. In October 2022, Ukraine sanctioned him, although he has avoided most Western sanctions, and his fortune has remained largely intact.
Personal Life
The ski-trip scandal remains the most widely reported episode of his personal life, and the record is worth repeating: he was detained for four days, released without criminal charges, and the allegations against him were never proven. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
The Nets sale, the Rusal exit and his avoidance of the sanctions that have hit other Russian billionaires all point to the same instinct: sell at the top and hold cash when others hold assets. It is the instinct that turned a disputed $170.1 million auction win into one of the great fortunes of modern Russia.
Mikhail Prokhorov Net Worth in 2026
Mikhail Prokhorov’s net worth stands at $13.5 billion in 2026, according to Celebrity Net Worth. It reflects a career built on one extraordinary sequence: the acquisition of Norilsk Nickel in 1995, its growth into a company with more than $17 billion in annual revenue, and its sale to Rusal in 2008 for more than $13 billion, just months before the financial crisis destroyed the fortunes of rivals who stayed invested. The Brooklyn Nets deal added a second act, turning $223 million into an exit worth around $3.5 billion. Few billionaires have timed their exits as well.
Related: Ilham Aliyev Net Worth, Elon Musk Net Worth, Michael Andretti Net Worth
Net worth figures are estimates only. Sources: Celebrity Net Worth. Photo: A. Savin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
