Cliff Asness Net Worth

Cliff Asness has an estimated net worth of $8 billion, according to Forbes Real-Time Billionaires, Cliff Asness profile (figures as of October 20, 2026). That is up from $3.1 billion in 2019.

Cliff Asness is an American hedge fund manager and a self-made billionaire in finance, according to Forbes. He worked in quantitative research at Goldman Sachs before helping start AQR Capital Management in 1998. AQR stands for Applied Quantitative Research. The firm uses quantitative and proprietary signals to invest across markets. It offers hedge funds, mutual funds, and separately managed accounts, and it has grown into a large money management business.

His rise came from turning academic finance ideas into investment products. Asness earned a finance Ph.D. and served as a teaching assistant at the University of Chicago for Eugene Fama. At Goldman Sachs, he worked on quantitative research before leaving to build AQR with David Kabiller, John Liew, and Robert Krail. AQR later expanded beyond hedge funds and pushed more liquid, transparent products, including mutual funds built with computer-driven models.

How Cliff Asness built his fortune

Asness made his money in money management. AQR is a quant-driven firm with around $260 billion in investor assets, according to Forbes. Its approach is based on quantitative and proprietary signals rather than traditional stock picking alone. The company offers several product types, including hedge funds, mutual funds, and separately managed accounts. That broad platform gave Asness exposure to fees from institutional and other investors across different strategies.

Before AQR, Asness worked in quantitative research for Goldman Sachs. His academic background also shaped the business. He studied finance at the University of Chicago and worked as a teaching assistant for Eugene Fama, a key figure behind ideas that later influenced factor investing. AQR later used that kind of research in practice. Forbes also notes that the firm is based in Greenwich, Connecticut, with offices in Bangaluru, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Munich, and Sydney.

What Forbes says about his net worth

Forbes has shown a sharp swing in Asness's wealth over time. Its World's Billionaires List put him at $3.1 billion in 2019, then $2.6 billion in 2020 and $1.4 billion in 2021. Forbes later estimated $1.6 billion in 2022 and again in 2023. Those changes fit the ups and downs that can come with a business tied to markets, fund performance, and investor assets in quantitative strategies.

The estimate moved higher after that. Forbes pegged Asness at $1.8 billion in 2024 and $2.9 billion in 2025, then $6.3 billion on the 2026 World's Billionaires List. As of October 20, 2026, Forbes' real-time billionaires tracker showed $8 billion. His wealth is tied to AQR, which remained a major investment firm while offering hedge funds, mutual funds, and separately managed accounts built around its quantitative research process.