2014 to 2019 Point72 has origins to 1992 with the founding of
S.A.C. Capital Advisors, a group of hedge funds founded by
Steve Cohen. S.A.C pled guilty to federal charges in 2013 after an 11-year investigation into insider trading. Point72 was founded in 2014 by Cohen as the successor to S.A.C. with the bulk of S.A.C.'s assets being transferred to Point72. Under an S.E.C. agreement, Point72 was initially not allowed to manage money from outside investors. Douglas D. Haynes was appointed president. In 2015, the firm created Point72 Academy, a 15-month paid program to train college graduates to work for the firm. That same year, the firm started Point72 Ventures, a
venture capital unit focused on developing
financial technology. In 2018, the restriction on managing outside money was lifted and Point72 opened its first hedge fund, securing $3 billion in capital from approximately 20 institutions. Shaughnessy retired in 2018 and was replaced by Gavin O'Connor, who joined the firm from
Goldman Sachs. In March 2018, it was reported by the New York Times that Haynes resigned as president "amid [a] gender bias lawsuit, with Cohen assuming the role of president.
2020 to present In August 2020, the firm closed to new money with just over $17 billion under management. In March 2020, Point72 hired Mo Grimeh as head of its macro investing business, and created Point72 Hyperscale, a hybrid
venture and
private equity fund for early-stage
AI technology companies. In January 2021, along with
Ken Griffin's
Citadel Investments, Point72 contributed $750 million to a $2.75 billion emergency bailout of
Melvin Capital, a hedge fund that had incurred deep losses in the
GameStop short squeeze; Melvin Capital is run by
Gabe Plotkin, a former protégé of Steven Cohen and one of the managers of SAC whose trades were investigated by the SEC. In the first half of 2021, Point72 was reported to have lost $500 million on its investment in Melvin Capital. In June 2025, Point72 Ventures helped fund
series A for CX2, a
military technology startup. In 2025, Point72 Turion began as a
stock-picking hedge fund focused on AI, with Reuters reporting the fund holding approximately $1.5 billion as of January 2025. == Operations ==