QRT Delivers 2025 Gains: 30% Returns, $38B AUM & Risk Under the Lens

Qube Research & Technologies has clearly ranked among the hedge-fund outperformers in 2025. The flagship “Qube” fund achieving ~30% return is not only strong in absolute terms—outpacing many multi-strategy peers—but also reflective of its long-term average performance, which has been ~31% annualized since its launch in 2016. Torus, its equities/futures fund, also delivered solid returns (~20.4%), while Prism, incorporating macro and futures strategies, lagged behind with ~7.4% against 2025 market gains.

Asset growth has been substantial. From ~$28 billion in early 2025, QRT has expanded to ~$38 billion, driven by both capital inflows and investment gains. The aggregate of its funds (Qube, Torus + Prism, Moebius, etc.) is now one of the largest among quantitative hedge funds globally. The planned merger of Torus and Prism into a >$20 billion pool, with completion expected by end-2025, is a tactical response to overlapping strategies and possibly underperformers, aiming for better capital utilisation and reducing internal competition.

Institutionally, QRT is moving toward broader strategic diversification and operational scaling. The planned U.S. expansion via a Houston office, especially focused on commodities, signals a push to participate more directly in U.S. regulatory, capital and market opportunities. Simultaneously, the firm ratchets up its investment in technology, data, staffing of quantitative researchers and risk infrastructure—leveraging centralised risk oversight under its CIO to integrate strategies more tightly.

However, risks are elevated. The use of leverage appears high: QRT is reported to employ leverage metrics “at least twice that” of large peers like Millennium and Citadel, according to regulatory assets data from 2023. Modest performance from Prism last year versus peers attests to strategy dispersion risk. Also, merging funds can introduce integration and capacity challenges, especially with capital now greater than $20 billion pools, where “slippage” and market impact may start to erode alpha. Finally, regulatory examination—particularly in Europe around leverage, risk disclosure, and cross-border operations—could become material.

Strategic implications for investors and competitors include: allocator interest in quant funds with high alpha and strong infrastructure continues to favor QRT, assuming its performance stays consistent. Competitors may need to respond with improved technology, risk management and scale. For QRT, success will depend on whether these strong returns persist in periods of lower volatility; whether fund consolidation reduces overhead without sacrificing strategy specialization; and how execution fares when scaling up in new geographies and asset classes.

Open questions: What is the drawdown profile of its main strategies, especially under stressed markets? How sustainable is its leverage model? Will the merged Torus-Prism vehicle maintain returns per dollar of risk, or succumb to dilution effects? To what extent could regulatory constraints (in the U.S. and E.U.) limit its expansion or force changes in risk/operational structure?