Steven Cohen, CEO of multistrategy hedge fund Point72 Asset Management, doesn’t want to define his firm as just a hedge fund.
“My view is I am going to build out other types of funds,” Cohen said speaking Jan. 28 at the Global Alts iConnections MFA conference in Miami.
Point72 recently launched a private credit business. Cohen, who is also chair and president of the firm, noted there are plenty of credit businesses out there, but he sees his firm growing where staff want to and where they have talent.
“My view is that this firm is more than just a hedge fund. It can track the best talent wherever it is, and I’m here to support them and try to figure out how to grow and how to partner and how to grow the stuff, the businesses, that they want to grow,” he said.
Another area of growth has been launching a dedicated artificial intelligence fund, which will invest with a longer duration and time frame. Cohen said about $1.5 billion had been raised and that the AI fund is also part of being “more expansive about how I think about what the firm can do.”
Cohen said he believes we are in the first or second inning of AI and that it will affect everyone in how we conduct our lives and do business. It is “such a dramatic important shift, that to ignore it, I think, is a mistake,” he said.
Following the market rout Jan. 27 around Chinese AI firm DeepSeek, Cohen said he thought the news was positive for AI.
“Our view is what happened with DeepSeek is actually bullish, because it advances the move to artificial super intelligence,” he said. “And that’s coming, and it’s coming quick.”
Regarding the talent war, Cohen made comparisons between hedge funds and his ownership of the New York Mets Major League Baseball team. He said his preference for both is to develop talent in-house.
Cohen said he expects economic growth could slow in the second half of the year to 1.5% on the back of the Trump administration’s immigration policies as well as tariff policy.
“In 2025, I would expect the markets to top over the next couple of months, if it hasn't already, topped,” he said.
Cohen, who is 68, announced last year he was stepping away from day-to-day trading. He said during the conference interview that he had a vision of being behind screens at 70 and he felt the time was right. Instead, Cohen is spending time interacting with people, speaking at conferences and running the Mets.
Point72 had about $36.9 billion in assets under management as of Jan. 1. The firm finished up 19% last year.
