According to publicly available data, as of the end of Q2 2026, the number of quantitative private funds with AUM over ¥10 billion has climbed to 74. The first thought that comes to mind? This space is expanding at a pace you can almost watch in real time.
Breaking it down:
Funds above ¥5 billion: 98, with combined AUM exceeding ¥2.3 trillion—a ¥500 billion jump from the previous quarter.
Funds above ¥50 billion: 14, up from just 7 at the end of last year. That's a double in six months.
But the real action is at the very top. High-Flyer, Jiukun, Minghong, and Yanfu are all estimated to have crossed the ¥100 billion mark in actual AUM. Mingshi Fund jumped two tiers to land in the ¥70–80 billion range, while Liangpai Investment did the same, landing in the ¥50–60 billion bucket.
Impressive numbers, no doubt. But there's always another side to the coin.
Beneath the surface lies a less cheerful signal: alpha is steadily decaying. The bigger the scale, the harder it is to generate excess returns—that's a basic law of the quant game. When total industry AUM surges from roughly ¥1.8 trillion at the end of last year to ¥2.3 trillion now, the same strategies and the same factors are bound to deliver thinner and thinner alpha.
The industry is shifting gears—from a "race for scale" to a "survival-of-the-fittest contest." Over the past couple of years, it was all about who could raise capital faster and scale up quicker. The next chapter? It's about who can keep generating alpha even after they've gotten big. Those who can, stay at the table. Those who can't? Scale becomes a liability.
The Matthew effect in quant is accelerating. The big keep getting bigger, and the room for smaller players keeps shrinking. The ticket to this game? It's getting more expensive by the day.
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