Categories: Crypto

Numerai secures $500M from JPMorgan to scale its AI-driven hedge fund

Key Takeaways

Numerai, a San Francisco–based AI-focused quant fund, has secured a commitment of up to $500 million from JPMorgan Chase.
Richard Craib, Numerai’s founder, told Bloomberg that Numerai’s performance track record finally convinced big investors.

San Francisco–based hedge fund Numerai has secured a $500 million commitment from JPMorgan Asset Management, effectively doubling its current $450 million in assets under management. The deal follows Numerai’s strongest year to date, with a 25% net return in 2024.

Founded by Richard Craib in 2019, Numerai blends trading signals submitted by freelance quants and AI models. Contributors stake its native token, Numeraire (NMR), to back their predictions, earning rewards if successful and losing tokens if wrong.

Backed early by billionaire Paul Tudor Jones, the fund has grown from $60 million in 2021 to $450 million today. JPMorgan’s allocation highlights Wall Street’s growing appetite for machine-learning quant funds after Numerai rebounded from a 17% loss in 2023.

In an interview cited by Bloomberg, founder Richard Craib said investors waited until the firm proved it could sustain performance: “When you’re doing something unusual and different, they might wait even longer before they get excited.”

Numerai is expanding its team with hires from Meta and Voleon and recently repurchased $1 million of NMR to align with its contributor community. The firm positions itself as the “hedge fund for the AI age”, tapping global talent at scale.