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Wealth
The Big Take

Hedge Fund D1 Borrowed Billions for a Hot Bet That Now Faces Reckoning

The firm borrowed money to buy stakes in private companies and posted massive gains. But as valuations fade, such bullishness is veering into losses across the industry.

Daniel Sundheim

Daniel Sundheim

Photographer: Alex Flynn/Bloomberg
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Hedge funds were tallying gains on their hottest bet in years when Dan Sundheim reached an unusual deal with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to go even further.

With the bank’s help in August 2020, Sundheim’s D1 Capital Partners used its stakes in private companies as collateral for borrowing $2 billion that the firm could put toward yet more of those stakes, among other things. Last year that focus on private companies looked brilliant, as D1 updated its valuations and posted a whopping 70% gain in that part of its portfolio.