Tepper is the founder and president of Appaloosa Management, a global hedge fund based in Miami Beach, Florida.

[1] For the 2012 tax year, Institutional Investor's Alpha ranked Tepper's $2.2 billion paycheck as the world's highest for a hedge fund manager.

[3] A 2010 profile in New York described him as the object of "a certain amount of hero worship inside the industry," with one investor calling him "a golden god.

[8] As a boy he “played football and memorized the baseball statistics on the backs of cards given to him by his grandfather—early evidence of what he claims is a photographic memory.”[4] In a 2018 commencement address at Carnegie Mellon University, he revealed that his father had been physically abusive toward him.

In 1980, unsatisfied with this position, he enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University's business school to pursue its then-equivalent of an MBA, a Master of Science in Industrial Administration (MSIA).

In 1985, Tepper was recruited by Goldman Sachs as a credit analyst, which was forming its high yield group in New York City.

He began operating from a desk in the offices of mutual-fund manager and Goldman client Michael Price, aggressively trading his personal account in hopes of raising enough money to start his own fund.

[13] $4 billion of those profits went to Tepper's personal wealth, making him the top-earning hedge fund manager of 2009 according to The New York Times.

[18] As per Forbes list of The Richest People In The World, dated 8 MARCH 2024, David Tepper ranked #94 with a net worth of $20.6 Billion.

[19] In January 2018, Tepper praised President Trump's corporate tax cuts, saying that the bull market still had room to grow and denying it was overvalued.

[23][24] Tepper bought the NFL's Carolina Panthers from original owner and founder Jerry Richardson in May 2018, and was forced to sell his Steelers shares.

[30][31] On November 26, 2023, after the Panthers lost their game against the Tennessee Titans in Nashville, Tepper gained minor attention after he was heard shouting the word "fuck" as he left the Carolina locker room.

[34] Upon closing the Panthers purchase in 2018, Tepper suggested his desire to bring a Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise to Charlotte.

[46] Tepper also has made several large gifts to the University of Pittsburgh, including several endowed undergraduate scholarships and support of academic centers and university-run community outreach programs.

According to the NJ Star Ledger on June 24, 2011, "Last week, the fledgling group launched a $1 million campaign to advertise its mission and solicit donations.

Though the group cannot formally coordinate its work with lawmakers, it will be advised by two of the state’s top political consultants: Mike DuHaime, a Republican strategist with close ties to Christie, and Jamie Fox, a Democrat who served as former Gov.

"[50] After Hurricane Sandy, David Tepper donated $200,000 in gift cards to Jersey City and Hoboken families who suffered loss in the storm.

[6] He has characterized himself as “a regular upper-middle-class guy who happens to be a billionaire.”[4] The Washington Post has described him as “a man who’s unpolished and proud of it, whose reputation as a candid and at times controversial voice has grown almost as fast as his net worth.”[42] In New Jersey, he and his family lived in a modest stone house in Livingston, and his New York offices “resemble[d] a high-end sports bar—all polished mahogany and flat-screen TVs and black-and-gold Steelers paraphernalia—or a wealthy frat house.” He told an interviewer in 2010 that sometimes, “if someone is an asshole, like a waiter at a restaurant, I think, I could just buy this place and fire that guy.”[4] According to the Post, he “paid $43.5 million for the beachfront mansion of a former Goldman Sachs supervisor who had passed him over for promotion.

[62] Asked by a reporter about the origins of his strong confidence, Tepper said: “I was never afraid to go back to Pittsburgh and work in the steel mills.”[4] In 2016, he relocated his company to Miami Beach, Florida.

The move caused a state official to warn of a risk to the budget of New Jersey because of the resulting loss of income tax.

[64] In October 2020, Tepper announced he was returning to New Jersey for family reasons, a move which may cost him up to $120 million in state income tax.