In this article, we will take a look at the 16 Richest Hedge Fund Managers in the World and their top stock picks.
Fiscal year 2025, aided by an AI-powered stock market surge, proved to be a phenomenal year for hedge fund managers. Following a record-breaking year in 2024, Goldman Sachs’ February outlook report acknowledged “buoyant sentiment” among investors amid “unequivocally one of the best years for the hedge fund industry in recent memory.” Over 90% of allocators informed the bank that their investment portfolios matched or exceeded estimates.
Notably, billionaire-led large multi-manager funds such as D.E. Shaw, Bridgewater Associates, and Point72 Asset Management produced primarily double-digit returns in 2025. Overall, the top names in the $5 trillion industry performed well last year.
That said, Business Insider reported that some industry heavyweights trailed behind smaller contenders throughout the year. Izzy Englander’s $83.5 billion Millennium, for example, rose 10.5% in 2025, while Ken Griffin’s $72 billion Citadel rose 1.8% in December and finished the year up 10.2%.
Encouragingly, hedge funds are expected to continue the momentum in 2026. Speaking on the 2025 performance, Vanessa Bogaardt, global head of capital introduction, prime financing at Bank of America, said the following:
“Hedge fund assets are at all-time highs, supported by net inflows into the industry. Allocator sentiment toward hedge funds remains positive, and we see plenty of opportunities to explore in 2026.”
Our Methodology
For our list of the 16 richest hedge fund managers in the world, we made use of Hedge Fund Alpha’s list as the basis for our rankings. These money managers, ranked by net worth, lead some of the premier hedge funds worldwide. We also highlighted their top stock picks based on 13F portfolios as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2025.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 498.7% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 303 percentage points (see more details here).
16. John Armitage
Top Pick: Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)
John Armitage ranks among the richest hedge fund managers in the world. Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is one of John Armitage’s largest holdings, accounting for 12.47% of the billionaire’s total portfolio.
On May 5, Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) and Wealthsimple launched a trial agreement to enable stablecoin settlements in the Canadian market. The agreement enables Wealthsimple to satisfy specific responsibilities with Visa Canada using USD Coin (USDC), making it Canada’s first stablecoin settlement program.
The trial adds to Visa’s global stablecoin settlement capabilities, which the company says were on track to reach a $7 billion annualized run rate in settlement traffic by March 2026.
On the same day, Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) revealed an expansion of its Visa Agentic Ready program to include providers in Canada. The program’s goal is to make the Canadian payments environment ready for commerce, in which AI agents start and finish payments on behalf of customers. Visa Agentic Ready has already been made available in Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific, and will be expanded to additional regions this year.
Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is a digital payments technology company that operates a global payment network, connecting consumers, merchants, and financial institutions to facilitate electronic transactions.
15. Paul Marshall, Ian Wace
Top Pick: Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Paul Marshall and Ian Wace rank among the richest hedge fund managers in the world. Accounting for a 2.52% share ($2.76 billion) in the portfolio, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) ranks as Marshall Wace’s top stock pick.
On May 13, Wolfe Research published its internet sector study, which included Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) among its top picks. Wolfe forecasts that AWS acceleration will boost sales and EBITDA expectations, with the firm expecting AWS revenue growth in Q2 in the low-to-mid 30% range, vs the average expectation of 31%, citing gains from Anthropic, OpenAI, capacity expansion, and organic mid-teens percentage increases.
The firm additionally projects that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) should keep its share of the retail market, with potential operational income gains from marketing revenue growth, localization benefits, a move to third-party vendors, and incremental automation.
Meanwhile, on May 14, analyst Justin Post of BofA Securities reaffirmed a Buy rating for AMZN shares, with a price objective of $310. The analyst emphasized Amazon’s new Alexa for Shopping, which combines Rufus’ extensive product knowledge with Alexa+’s customized intelligence to create an integrated AI shopping assistant. Early data indicates that Alexa+ users engage twice as frequently and make three times as many on-device transactions, while Rufus users are 60% more likely to make the switch.
According to the analyst, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) reported $12 billion in additional GMV from Rufus in 2025, which is only around 1% of global GMV based on BofA projections, indicating a substantial runway for AI-fueled sales.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is an American technology company that focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, and other services, including digital streaming and artificial intelligence solutions.
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