Bridgewater and DE Shaw among top hedge fund winners in 2025

Bridgewater’s Pure Alpha II macro fund returned 34% last year, its best ever, while the All Weather strategy rose 20%, a person with knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. DE Shaw’s flagship multi-strategy composite hedge fund won18.5% and Oculus achieved around 28.2%.

Michel Massoud’s Melqart Opportunities events fund jumped 45%, another person said. Millennium Management, the $83.5 billion multi-strategy hedge fund firm, gained 10.5% last year. ExodusPoint, which grew its equities group to complement its fixed income operations led by co-founder Michael Gelband, gained 18%, the most since its founding in 2017. The company manages about $12 billion.

Citadel’s flagship hedge fund is up 10.2% in 2025, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified citing private information. This was the first year that Millennium outperformed Citadel’s Wellington fund since 2020.

Learn more: Citadel’s flagship hedge fund soared 10.2% last year

Early estimates show hedge funds overall posted strong gains, with returns in the sector on track to be the best in at least five years, driven by gains in U.S. stocks, precious metals and volatility in bond and currency markets spurred by President Donald Trump’s trade wars.

Bridgewater, the 50-year-old company, has seen double-digit returns across all of its strategies. The fund manager has been in reboot mode since Nir Bar Dea became sole CEO in 2023 and made sweeping personnel changes and asset reductions in a bid to improve performance. Billionaire Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio, based in Westport, Conn., left the company entirely, selling his remaining stake and leaving the board last year.

Bridgewater’s Pure Alpha II fund’s gains last year represent a rebound from annualized returns of less than 3% between 2012 and 2024, Bloomberg previously reported. The company’s AIA Labs fund, which uses machine learning as a primary basis for its decision-making, has raised more than $5 billion and is up 11% last year, the source added.

In the world of quantitative investing, AQR Capital Management’s multi-strategy offering returned 19.6% in 2025, according to a person familiar with the matter who declined to be identified because the information is private.

Learn more: AQR Multi-Strategy Apex Gains 19.6% During Turbulent Quantitative Year

Here’s how other hedge funds performed last year based on initial estimates:

A representative for Bridgewater, which managed $92 billion as of September, declined to comment. Massoud, who manages about $1.4 billion, and representatives of the hedge funds mentioned in the chart declined to comment.