Steve Cohen, the hedge fund mogul who owns the New York Mets, wants to raise $1 billion to buy a stake in an artificial intelligence company, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
Sources told the financial newswire that his Point72 Asset Management firm plans to launch a new fund that will bet on, or not bet on, AI hardware and semiconductor companies.
The 68-year-old investment mogul has previously said he expects AI technology to be “transformative” in the way companies do business.
“There will be big winners and big losers,” Cohen told CNBC in April.
“When we see innovation like this, it reminds me of the ’90s, when some of the best startups were born,” he said.
Growing investor interest in AI-related stocks over the past year has been said to have driven the market.
Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, Point72 has $33.9 billion in assets under management.
Bloomberg reported that the firm’s San Francisco-based portfolio manager Eric Sanchez will run Cohen’s new AI-focused fund, which is expected to launch later this year or early 2025.
Aside from outside investment, Point72 employees and Cohen himself, who has an estimated net worth of $13.9 billion, will contribute capital to the new venture.
The New York-born manager will be hoping the venture will be more successful than his past four years with the Mets, who currently sit in fourth place in the National League East.
Cohen bought the Mets in 2020 for $2.4 billion, the largest sale of an MLB team in history, and became CEO and chairman.
He acknowledged last year that he had lost money on the project after investing in the team’s quest to win its third World Series championship.
Last season was a dismal one, finishing fourth in the National League East and missing the playoffs and the final wild card spot.
That came at a staggering $420 million in 2023. The team’s total committed payroll reached a record $319.5 million, while they were required to pay $100.8 million in luxury tax.
