Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in history. He became a leading philanthropist in the United States and in the British Empire. he was an american industrialist who amassed a fortune in the steel industry then became a major philanthropist in 1901, he sold the Carnegie Steel Company to banker John Pierpont Morgan for $480 million. He donated the bulk of his wealth an estimated $350 million (worth about $4.8 billion today).