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June 12 (UPI) -- Billionaire George Soros is handing over control of his multi-billion-dollar empire to his second-youngest son, the Wall Street Journal confirmed on Monday. In an extensive interview, Soros, 92, said his son Alex Soros has "earned it," putting the 37-year-old in charge of a collective $25 billion between the family's personal finances at the $18-billion charitable organizations it oversees.
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Alex Soros took over in December as chairman of the family's Open Society Foundations, a group of like-minded charities. He also runs his father's super PAC, which is one of the largest financial donors to Democratic political causes.
The foundations distribute around $1.5 billion annually to various progressive causes and charities.
"I'm more political," the younger Soros told the Wall Street Journal, adding the charities will increase support for voting and abortion rights. He also insinuated it could be a big financial player and back in next year's presidential election.
"As much as I would love to get money out of politics, as long as the other side is doing it, we will have to do it, too," he said during the Wall Street Journal interview.
Alex Soros is the second-youngest of his father's five children divided between two marriages. He has a PhD in History from the University of California, Berkeley.
George Soros has continually been a major contributor to Democratic political campaigns since the 1990s and routinely makes the list of the world's 400 richest people.
The Hungarian-American former hedge fund manager survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary in World War II by concealing their Jewish heritage. Soros later left for London at the age of 17 to pursue a career in finance.
He famously earned $1 billion by short-selling the British Pound ahead of a decline in 1992.
Since his rise to prominence, he has become the target of anti-semitic attacks and far-right conspiracy theories.
He has clashed with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. In 2018, a university Soros founded in Budapest was forced to close at the insistence of Orbán's ruling party.
