The hedge fund industry's biggest players added USD 224 bn in 20 months

The nine largest hedge funds have added a combined USD 224 bn in assets since early last year — and Millennium Management is closing in fastest on a threshold almost no one in the industry has crossed, Bloomberg writes in its latest Big Take. It now manages USD 97 bn and is set to lock in USD 22 bn in fresh commitments on 1 October, enough to push assets toward USD 130 bn within a few years if its usual double-digit returns hold. AQR has already cleared USD 140 bn; DE Shaw added USD 40 bn in 19 months to reach USD 90 bn; and a half-dozen more firms have topped USD 75 bn — the most ever to do so at once.

The money coming in is changing: Wealthy individuals — not only pensions and endowments — are funding the growth; they already make up 30-40% of Millennium's assets.

Why it matters: Industry-wide hedge fund assets hit USD 5.6 tn at midyear, up 25% since the end of 2024 — but growth is concentrating, not spreading. Multistrategy funds tend to hold similar positions and can be forced to unwind them at the same time, Ivy Invest Co-Founder Wendy Li told Bloomberg — a risk that's harder to see coming at a diversified multistrat than at a plain-vanilla equity fund.

Size needs to be managed, though: Bridgewater — the first hedge fund to cross USD 100 bn, peaking near USD 150 bn in 2021 — underperformed peers in 2022 and 2023. New CEO Nir Bar Dea then deliberately shrank the flagship Pure Alpha fund toward an internal target of USD 50-60 bn rather than chasing scale. Performance recovered — Pure Alpha returned 11.3% in 2024, ahead of the industry, and kept gaining through 2025 and into this year — and firm-wide assets have since climbed back to roughly USD 102 bn.

The Gulf is riding that wave: DIFC now has 100 registered hedge fund managers, with hedge fund AUM there over USD 700 bn. ADGM's own AUM grew 54% y-o-y in the first half of 2026, and Man Group and Capital Group both opened ADGM offices this year. Remember: Millennium reaffirmed its Dubai office in March, even amid regional tensions.

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asian markets are up in early trading. South Korea’s Kospi is up 1.3%, while chip-related stocks are driving gains in Japan’s Nikkei, which rose 0.5%. US equities are down across the board as investors assess ongoing developments in the US-Iran conflict.

THE CLOSING BELL-

The ADX rose 0.5% yesterday on turnover of AED 991.8 mn. The index is up 0.3% YTD.

In the green: Abu Dhabi National Hotels Co. (+6.4%), Two Point Zero Group (+5.7%), and Fujairah Building Industries (+5.0%).

In the red: Fujairah Cement Industries (-3.2%), Invest Bank (-3.0%), and Bank of Sharjah (-2.6%).

Over on the DFM, the index rose 0.3% on turnover of AED 492.4 mn. Meanwhile, Nasdaq Dubai was up 0.6%.