Billionaire Jim Simons has died at the age of 86

Top line

Jim Simons, a mathematician turned billionaire investor and philanthropist, died Friday at age 86.

Simons co-founded his foundation in 1994. (Image credit should read: TIM SLOAN/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

Important facts

Simons’ death was announced by his scientific research organization, the Simons Foundation, which did not share the cause of death and noted that the investor was survived by his wife and three children.

Simons, who formerly headed Stony Brook University’s mathematics department, founded Renaissance Technologies – a hedge fund specializing in quantitative trading – in 1982 and helped the fund establish itself as one of the best-performing investment firms of all time before retiring in 2010.

Renaissance, which now manages $106 billion in assets, rose to prominence through its Medallion Fund, a $10 billion fund known for its consistent gains that is available only to Renaissance owners and employees.

Simons and his wife Marilyn Simons co-founded the Simons Foundation in 1994 with the goal of supporting education, mathematics and basic science.

Simons and his wife donated billions of dollars to philanthropic and educational causes, supporting autism research and Math For America, which helped STEM teachers and was also co-founded by Simons.

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Forbes rating

We estimate Simons’ net worth at $31.4 billion, making him the 51st richest person in the world at the time of his death. In 2005, he was named to the Forbes billionaires list for the first time.

Surprising fact

Simons was a codebreaker for the United States during the Vietnam War.

Important background

Simons was born in the Boston suburb of Brookline in 1938, Bloomberg reported, noting that he earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from MIT in 1958 after three years of study. His achievements as a mathematician contributed to academic fields such as string theory, topology and condensed matter physics, according to his foundation. Although Simons retired from his work at Renaissance in 2010 after championing a quantitative trading approach, he remained active in his role as co-founder of the Simons Foundation until the end of his life.