What We Do
The D. E. Shaw group is trusted by investors across the world to seek an optimal balance of risk and reward. We launched in 1989 as a pioneer in systematic investing and have built on that foundation to develop formidable expertise in fundamental analysis and discretionary investing. We use a combination of quantitative tools and human-driven insights to uncover independent, hard-to-find sources of return across global public and private markets.
We run on collaboration, not internal competition. Teams work together to share ideas, identify and address risks, build innovative technologies, and explore new opportunities.
Investment Management
Our investment staff draws on specialized research, trading, and operational infrastructure developed over more than 35 years.
As of December 1, 2025, the D. E. Shaw group had more than $85 billion in investment and committed capital.
Approaches
We deploy a rigorous research- and data-driven approach to investing, with strategies spanning the continuum from systematic to discretionary.
Systematic Strategies
Our systematic strategies run on quantitative and computational techniques developed by the firm over more than 35 years of research and trading. We believe a culture of analytical rigor, supported by state-of-the-art infrastructure, is the bedrock of successful systematic investing. We aim to identify statistically robust market inefficiencies through a scientific approach to research, built upon our practical knowledge of capital markets, sophisticated data processing, and advanced computational methods.
Discretionary Strategies
Our discretionary strategies rely on fundamental analysis to uncover attractive investment opportunities spanning asset classes across public and private markets. Our discretionary investment activities benefit from a highly disciplined and process-driven approach to fundamental research and portfolio construction. We believe our collaborative approach, drawing on shared data and technological resources, allows us to optimally deploy our deep domain expertise and adapt to ever-evolving market conditions.
Capabilities
Our investment activities fall into four broad categories:
Hedge Funds
Privates
Active Equity
Multi-Asset Class
Technology Development
We use sophisticated technology to run our investment activities, with more than 700 talented developers and engineers pushing its potential. When platforms don’t meet our standards, we build our own.
The entrepreneurial spirit has always been a part of our firm’s culture. (We even created one of the world’s first free email service providers.)
In 2015, we formed Arcesium LLC to make part of our capabilities available to other asset managers. Arcesium is now an independently operated company that provides post-trade technology and services to financial clients, while continuing to support the D. E. Shaw group and its funds.
Open Source
As a technology development firm, we are an active user of open source software. We support the open source community by funding software initiatives, contributing ideas and features to existing projects, and releasing our own innovative tools.
Some of our notable open source contributions include:
Explore some of our other work on GitHub.
Risk Management
Some might say we have an obsession with risk management. We’d have to agree. We believe it’s a key differentiator between firms that survive and thrive over the long run and those that don’t. At the D. E. Shaw group, our risk management capabilities have been tested by market cycles and crises over the course of more than three decades.
A central principle of our approach is that risk management and portfolio management are not separated: every one of us is a risk manager. We’re guided by our Risk Committee, which evaluates risk in various dimensions and manages the allocation of capital among our strategies.
Our Risk Committee is made up of:
Read some of our thinking about risk management in “Lessons from the Woodshop” and “Diversification and Beyond” in our Library section.
Spotlight: Entrepreneurship
Since our founding, we’ve applied the same drive, creativity, and financial expertise that paved the way for our first investment strategies to other entrepreneurial ventures.
Beginning in 2005, we built three industry-leading renewable energy companies and invested in dozens of utility-scale renewable energy projects across the United States, including the country’s first offshore wind farm. Today, DESRI is a major developer, owner, and operator of renewable energy projects.
We formed Arcesium LLC in 2015 following years of internal development and testing to provide firms in the financial industry with advanced data, analytics, and post-trade processing capabilities. Arcesium is now an independent, global financial technology firm delivering a wide range of pre- and post-investment and enterprise data management services to sophisticated financial institutions, including the D. E. Shaw group and its funds.
Since 2015, our DESCOvery venture studio has built and launched innovative, technology-oriented businesses and ventures in fintech, insurtech, and data analytics.
Industry Leadership
Over the past decade, we’ve received more than 65 industry award nominations, winning in multiple categories, including for overall management, fund performance, and operational excellence.
We also take an active role in regulatory and trade group committees to promote best practices and weigh in on key policy issues.