AQR Roars Back With $179 Billion in Assets and Taste for Secrecy

AQR Capital Management is riding high again, topping benchmarks across strategies and growing assets at a record pace. In the process of engineering a comeback, however, the quant pioneer has reined in a policy that once made it an outlier among hedge funds: An unusually open approach to explaining how it invests.

Following a rocky multi-year stretch when assets fell by half, the Connecticut-based hedge fund manager — famous for publicly breaking down its ideas with evangelical zeal — has found its groove. Its five-year annualized returns range from 15% to 20%, well ahead of some industry benchmarks and on track to repeat in 2025, according to a person familiar. Assets have grown by a record $65 billion this year, reaching $179 billion and approaching prior highs.