LCH Investments have updated their estimates of the world’s greatest money managers to 31 December 2025 and the list is attached.
The top 20 managers made $115.8 billion net of fees for their investors in 2025 and have made $969.8 billion net of fees for their investors since inception.
Hedge fund managers overall made $543.0 billion for their investors in 2025, the highest ever. This brings the net gains since inception to $2,367 billion.
The top 20 managers have made 41.0% of the total net gains since inception; they managed 16.6% of the assets under management at 31 December 2025.
Comments from Rick Sopher
Commenting on the data, Rick Sopher said:
On the 2025 results of hedge funds:
On hedge fund performance overall
"Hedge funds made $543.0 billion for their investors in 2025, the highest ever $ gains generated by the group. A combination of record high assets under management, strong equity and bond markets, and sizeable macro trading opportunities all contributed to this strong performance."
On the outperformance of the top 20
"Once again, in 2025, the top 20 managers considerably outperformed the average hedge fund manager. The money weighted return of the top 20 in 2025 was 15.7% - far better than the rest of the hedge fund universe." [for comparison - the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index Index returned 12.6% in 2025].
In 2025, the top 20 managers have generated 41.0% of the gains made by all hedge fund managers. Yet they only represented 16.6% of the assets under management"
"The continued outperformance by the top 20 managers is remarkable. Most of the top 20 are run by managers with a shrewd business instict who have proven over decades that they can make money for investors".
On the capacity control by the top 20
"Part of the astute management of the top 20 managers is to carefully control capacity and the overall size of their funds. In 2025, most managers in the top 20 either limited inflows or returned capital to investors, thereby limiting the size of their assets under management and positioning their firms to be able to generate strong returns for their investors."
On the highest ever dollar gain by a single manager
In 2025, the largest $ gain was made by TCI Fund Management at $18.9 billion. This represents the largest ever annual dollar gain made by a manager for its investors.
Rick Sopher commented:
"The gains made by TCI, including the record largest gain in 2025, continue to be quite remarkable; over the past 3 years TCI has made $40.0 billion net of fees for investors".
Also see: Sir Christopher Hohn’s TCI Won Big with These Stocks [Investor Letter]
[TCI rose from 14th position to 5th position over the past 3 years.]
(Note: the top 20 referred to above are the top 20 at 31.12.25)
Also see: Christopher Hohn on Why Alphabet Is His Riskiest Investment [Exclusive]
On the changes in the top 20:
“Remarkably, there were no new entries into the top 20, and relatively little movement among the leaders, reflecting perhaps the persistence and dominance of the top firms."
Basis of Preparation
Our sources are a combination of meetings and contacts with the founders and managers of the respective firms, audited and management reports, internal estimates and other confidential sources. Net gains typically include money made by the founder or manager on their own investment in the firm’s investment vehicles. We have included the gains made by firms after the official retirement of the founder, provided the investment approach remains substantially unchanged. Our criteria for inclusion include that the founder or manager should be the lead investment manager of an investment vehicle or vehicles which are mainly open ended or invested in liquid assets. When the manager formally ceases to manage money for outside investors, the net gains are typically frozen at that point. Gains generated by discretionary investment managers who also manage “long only” investment vehicles are included; gains made in investment vehicles which are structurally linked to the performance of an index, as well as gains made in closed end vehicles designed to be structurally long a specific class of assets, such as CLOs, are excluded. In such cases, the assets under management are shown for the corresponding hedge fund assets only. Sources for hedge fund assets under management and flows include: Nasdaq eVestment, HFR and internal estimates.
About Leveraged Capital Holdings (LCH)
LCH is the world’s oldest fund of hedge funds, launched on 30 November 1969. In the 54 years until its closure in 2025, the value of one share at launch has multiplied by 170 times, representing a return of 10.0% per annum. LCH was a part of The Capital Holdings Funds plc, led by Edmond de Rothschild.
Rick Sopher
Rick Sopher was Chairman of LCH Investments NV, the investment advisor of LCH from 2001 to 2025. He is Senior Advisor at Edmond de Rothschild.
