Steve Cohen (businessman)

Steven A. Cohen (born June 11, 1956) is an American hedge fund manager and owner of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB). He is the founder of Point72 Asset Management and S.A.C. Capital Advisors. In 2013, S.A.C. Capital Advisors pleaded guilty to wire and securities fraud to insider trading and paid $1.8 billion in fines. In 2020, Cohen acquired the Mets from Fred Wilpon for $2.4 billion.

Early life and education

Cohen was born on June 11, 1956, and raised in Great Neck, New York, where his father worked as a dress manufacturer in Manhattan's garment district and his mother was a piano teacher. He grew up in a Jewish family.

The third of eight children, Cohen developed an interest in poker during high school, often wagering his own money in tournaments. Cohen often enjoyed playing this game with his friends and has credited the game with teaching him "how to take risks." He graduated from John L. Miller Great Neck North High School in 1974, where he played on the soccer team.

Cohen received an economics degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1978. While at Penn, he joined the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity's Theta chapter, where he served as treasurer. A friend helped him open a brokerage account using $1,000 of his tuition money, which marked his entry into financial markets. and eventually managed a $75 million portfolio and six traders.

In 2003, the New York Times wrote that "SAC is one of the biggest hedge funds and is known for frequent and rapid trading." In 2006, The Wall Street Journal reported that, while Cohen was once a rapid-fire trader who never held trading positions for extended periods, he now held an increasing number of equities for longer periods.

As of 2009, the firm managed $14 billion in equity.

Racketeering and insider trading allegations

In December 2009, Cohen and his brother Donald T. Cohen were sued by Steven's ex-wife Patricia Cohen for racketeering and insider trading charges. On March 30, 2011, the United States District Court in Lower Manhattan dismissed the case, but, on April 3, 2013, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled that a lower court had erred in dismissing fraud-based claims by his former spouse and revived the lawsuit. The appeals court also revived claims of racketeering and breach of fiduciary duty while upholding the dismissal of an unjust-enrichment claim.

Writing for a three-judge panel, Circuit Judge Pierre N. Leval said that Patricia Cohen had made a "plausible" allegation that Steven Cohen had concealed the $5.5 million during negotiations on a separation agreement in 1989, which preceded the divorce. The revival of the lawsuit came amid mounting pressure on Steven Cohen over an insider-trading investigation that led to the arrest of Michael Steinberg, one of Cohen's closest confidantes at SAC Capital. SAC affiliates reached two civil insider trading settlements totaling nearly $616 million with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SAC neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in either case. The SEC brought charges against many other S.A.C. employees from 2010 to 2013 with various outcomes. Martoma was convicted in 2014, in what federal prosecutors billed as the most profitable insider-trading conspiracy in history. The SEC later brought a civil lawsuit against Cohen, alleging his failure to supervise Martoma and Michael Steinberg, who was a senior employee and confidant of Cohen's. Cohen settled his civil case with regulators in January 2016; the agreement with the SEC prohibited Cohen from managing outside money until 2018.

Point72 Ventures (2014–present)

In 2014, Cohen founded Point72 Ventures, "a venture capital fund that makes early-stage investments". As of 2026, Point72 manages $45.7 billion in assets under management, placing it among the world's largest multi-strategy hedge funds alongside Citadel and Millennium Management. In October 2024, Point72 launched Turion, a fund dedicated to artificial intelligence investments, run by portfolio manager Eric Sanchez. The fund posted a 14% gain within months of launch and was expected to grow to $1.5 billion in assets.

GameStop short squeeze

In January 2021, Cohen's hedge fund Point72 joined Ken Griffin's Citadel in putting $2.75 billion into Melvin Capital, the hedge fund of former Cohen protege Gabe Plotkin, as a result of the GameStop short squeeze. Cohen denied that his involvement with the short squeeze would affect his willingness to spend money on the New York Mets. Cohen deactivated his Twitter account on January 29, 2021, due to an influx of threats against him and his family.

Wealth

In 2024, Forbes estimated Cohen's net worth at $21.3 billion, ranking him the 30th richest person in the United States.

Cohen was dubbed "the hedge fund king" in a 2006 Wall Street Journal article. His 2005 compensation was reportedly $1 billion, considerably higher than his 2001 compensation of $428 million. In December 2013, Cohen's New York penthouse in the Bloomberg Tower was listed with an initial sale price of $115 million. According to Institutional Investor, Cohen made an estimated $1.7 billion in 2020. In 2025, Cohen earned an estimated $3.4 billion, topping Bloomberg's annual ranking of the world's highest-paid hedge fund managers for the first time, surpassing longtime rival Ken Griffin of Citadel. Point72's flagship fund returned approximately 17.5% in 2025, its fourth consecutive year of double-digit gains.

New York Mets

Cohen became a minority owner of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB) in 2012, with an 8% stake in the club. In August 2020, Cohen had entered negotiations with Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz to buy a controlling interest in the team before reaching an agreement the following month. MLB approved the sale in October 2020, allowing Cohen to take control in November.

In 2021, the Mets struggled heavily. Cohen fired Brodie Van Wagenen when he took over and Jared Porter for harassment of a female reporter. In addition, underperformance from several players he acquired led the Mets to a historic collapse. The Mets were in first place for the longest of any team that finished with a losing record in MLB history, and the team finished with a 77–85 record. In 2022, with the highest payroll in baseball, the team performed better, finishing with a 101–61 record and making the playoffs. However, the Mets blew a -game division lead to the Atlanta Braves, settling for second place. The Mets then lost the 2022 National League Wild Card series in three games to the San Diego Padres, sealing another historic collapse. In 2023, despite Steve Cohen putting $331 million into the payroll, the team went 7–19 in June, and ultimately missed the playoffs, with a 75–87 record.

The 2024 season marked a dramatic turnaround. After a dreadful 22–33 start, the team held a players-only meeting led by shortstop Francisco Lindor that proved pivotal. The Mets went 67–40 the rest of the way, clinching a playoff spot on the final day of the regular season. They knocked out the Milwaukee Brewers in the Wild Card round and upset the Philadelphia Phillies in the Division Series before falling to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS four games to two. It was the Mets' first NLCS appearance since 2015 and widely regarded as one of the most memorable seasons in franchise history.

In the 2025 season, cohen signed outfielder Juan Soto to a record 15-year, $765 million contract and assembled a $340 million payroll - the highest in baseball. Despite this, the team squandered the best record in the majors at the midseason mark, going 38–55 over the final 93 games and missing the playoffs on the last day of the season after losing a tiebreaker to the Cincinnati Reds. Cohen took to social media afterward: "Mets fans everywhere. I owe you an apology. You did your part by showing up and supporting the team. We didn't do our part."

Philanthropy

Cohen has given $715 million to philanthropic causes throughout his life, including to charitable causes relating to veterans and children's health.

Cohen serves on the board of trustees of the New York-based Robin Hood Foundation.

Via the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, the Cohens have donated to projects involved in health, education, arts and culture, and the New York community. In 2014, the Cohen Foundation provided funding, via the New York University Langone Center, for the study of post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury. The foundation gave a grant in excess of $100,000 to the Bruce Museum of Arts and Science in 2014. In 2019, the foundation contributed $50 million of the more than $400 million raised for the New York Museum of Modern Art. The museum announced in 2017 that MoMA's largest contiguous gallery will be called the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Center for Special Exhibitions. Cohen is on the board of the MoMa and LA MOCA. In 2024, the foundation gave a $116 million gift to LaGuardia Community College, which became the largest donation of any US community college.

In 2008, the Cohen Foundation gave a $50 million gift to expand and improve emergency care at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital at NewYork-Presbyterian (NYP). The Cohen Children's Emergency Department opened in June 2011. In January 2016, the Cohen Foundation gave $75 million to establish the Alexandra Cohen Hospital for Women and Newborns at NYP/Weill Cornell. NYP announced a $35 million gift to address the youth mental health crisis arising from the COVID-19 pandemic in July 2023.

In April 2016, Cohen announced the creation and a commitment of $275 million to the Cohen Veterans Network. The CVN's goal is to establish mental-health centers for veterans and their families throughout the United States.

In 2017, Cohen contributed $1 million to Donald Trump's inauguration.

In 2021, Cohen donated $500,000 to a Super PAC supporting Andrew Yang's candidacy in the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary, and a further $1.5 million to a Super PAC supporting Eric Adams.

Art collection

Cohen's art collection is reported to be worth around $1 billion. Cohen's tastes and collection began with Impressionist painters, acquiring works by Manet and Monet, after which he moved quickly into contemporary art. he is most famous for collecting 'trophy' art, signature works by famous artists, including a Pollock drip painting from David Geffen for $52 million and Damien Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a piece that the artist had bought back from Charles Saatchi for $8 million.

In 2006, Cohen attempted to make the most expensive art purchase in history when he offered to purchase Picasso's Le Rêve from casino mogul Steve Wynn for $139 million. Just days before the painting was to be transported to Cohen, Wynn, who suffers from poor vision due to retinitis pigmentosa, accidentally thrust his elbow through the painting while showing it to a group of acquaintances inside of his office at Wynn Las Vegas. The purchase was canceled, and Wynn kept the painting until early November 2012, when Cohen finally acquired the painting for $150 million.

In May 2019, Cohen bought Jeff Koons's Rabbit for $91.1 million; the purchase was made through Robert Mnuchin and was the most expensive work sold by a living artist at auction at the time.

Cohen owns or has owned artworks by Lucio Fontana, Alberto Giacometti, Willem de Kooning, Jeff Koons, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol. In 2015, he reportedly bought the world's most expensive sculpture, Alberto Giacometti's Man Pointing. In November 2015, his art collection was estimated to be at about $1 billion. Cohen is reportedly building a private museum for some of his artwork on his Greenwich property. Cohen had also placed Marc Quinn's Self, a head sculpture made of frozen blood, in the SAC lobby.

Legacy and awards

In 2008, he was inducted into the Institutional Investors Alpha's Hedge Fund Manager Hall of Fame along with Alfred Jones, Bruce Kovner, David Swensen, George Soros, Jack Nash, James Simons, Julian Robertson, Kenneth Griffin, Leon Levy, Louis Bacon, Michael Steinhardt, Paul Tudor Jones and Seth Klarman.

Personal life

Cohen has been married twice. They divorced in 1990 and have two children together. '"She'd always wanted to marry a millionaire," a friend told BusinessWeek, though she also saw Steve's other charms. She thought he was the funniest person she'd ever met.' He was portrayed by Vincent D'Onofrio in the 2023 film Dumb Money, a biographical drama covering the GameStop short squeeze. In 1998, Cohen purchased a home on in Greenwich, Connecticut.