There are few money managers on Wall Street who have achieved as much as success as D. E. Shaw, a former Columbia University computer science professor who has become one of the richest men in the world through stock trading. His hedge fund, D. E. Shaw, managed a 13F portfolio worth over $182 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025. Shaw is famous for using a stock picking technique that offers hybrid integration of mathematical algorithms with human fundamental analysis. This strategy is reflected in the Shaw hiring process as well. The workforce boasts over 80 PhDs and dozens of International Math Olympiad medalists.
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In recent years, Shaw is viewed less as a hedge fund manager and more as a pioneer of computational biochemistry. He has spent the early part of this year unveiling breakthroughs in molecular dynamics. Using the proprietary Anton 3 supercomputer—a machine significantly faster than any general-purpose supercomputer for simulating molecular interactions—Shaw has made strides in protein folding that are currently being used to develop targeted therapies for rare genetic disorders. Per data from LCH Investments, D. E. Shaw is the third-highest grossing hedge fund of all time, with over $55 billion in lifetime net gains.
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David E. Shaw of D.E. Shaw
Our Methodology
To compile our list of the best stocks to buy according to billionaire D. E. Shaw, we reviewed the latest 13F filings of D. E. Shaw. Next, we focused on the top 10 stocks in his portfolio. Data for the hedge fund sentiment surrounding each stock was taken from Insider Monkey’s Q4 2025 database of 1041 elite hedge funds.
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).
D. E. Shaw Stock Portfolio: Top Stocks to Buy
10. Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX)
D. E. Shaw’s Stake: $1 Billion
D. E. Shaw has been a long-term admirer of Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX). His fund first purchased a stake in the company back in the fourth quarter of 2010 when the streaming company was still not a household name. This position comprised more than 300,000 shares. The billionaire then proceeded to add to this stake, taking it as high as 106 million shares by the first quarter of 2014. Since then, however, this position has been trimmed, but features consistently in the 13F portfolio of the fund. Filings for the fourth quarter of 2025 show that the fund owned nearly 11.6 million shares in the company, representing an increase of more than 48% compared to filings for the third quarter of 2025.
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) has attracted interest from Wall Street bigwigs amid a billion-dollar opportunity as the firm shifts to its in-house ad-tech stack. Under this new model, the ad revenue for the company is projected to double from $1.5 billion in 2025 to $3 billion by the end of 2026, providing high-margin growth that is not solely dependent on adding new subscribers. The streaming giant has also shifted from a cash burner to a cash generator in recent years. It is forecasted to generate roughly $11 billion to $11.4 billion in positive FCF in 2026. For hedge funds, this cash opens the door for aggressive share buybacks or even the first-ever dividend discussions, which attracts a more stable class of institutional investors.
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