Instacart Co-founder Launches AI-Driven Hedge Fund Managed Entirely by Algorithms

Deep News04-24

Apoorva Mehta, co-founder of the US grocery delivery platform Instacart, is pushing the application of artificial intelligence to a new level—he has established a hedge fund entirely directed by AI agents, with human staff solely responsible for system maintenance.

The AI Fund Manager: From Sourcing Ideas to Executing Trades Mehta founded the fund, named "Abundance," last year in Palo Alto, California. According to him, the company employs thousands of AI bots that autonomously scour the internet to find trading ideas, conduct research, select stocks for long and short positions, determine position sizes, and execute trades. "Compared to AI, human investors face inherent limitations," Mehta stated. "People can only track a limited number of opportunities at once and make a finite number of high-quality decisions. Even for exceptional investors, this process is locked inside their minds. AI completely revolutionizes this."

$100 Million in Seed Capital, 10-Person Elite Team Abundance currently manages its own capital, having raised $100 million in a seed funding round, with plans to accept external funds in the future. The company has a 10-person team composed of quantitative researchers, engineers, and AI experts responsible for developing and maintaining the AI models. Mehta revealed that the fund currently employs stock selection strategies operated entirely by AI, while some strategies still under development involve a degree of human input. The fund currently engages in long and short stock trading and plans to expand to other asset classes in the future.

AI Transitions from "Assistive Tool" to "Decision-Making Entity" Mehta's venture represents a cutting-edge trend in the asset management industry. For a long time, AI has primarily played an "assistive" role in investing, helping analysts screen data or optimize portfolios. Abundance's goal is to make AI the true "decision-making entity"—taking on tasks traditionally performed by fundamental investment managers and traders. Whether this bold experiment succeeds will serve as a significant indicator of AI's ability to replace human intelligence in highly complex financial decision-making.

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