Philippe Laffont
Philippe Laffont is a French hedge fund manager, investor, and philanthropist. He is the founder and chief investment officer of Coatue Management, a global technology focused investment firm managing tens of billions of dollars in assets. Laffont is known for his early investments in transformative technology companies and his roots as a "Tiger Cub” a term for alumni of Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management.
Early life and education
Laffont was born in Belgium, grew up in France and later moved to the United States. He earned both a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in 1991.Career
Early career
Laffont began his professional career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company in Madrid. He later joined Tiger Management as a research analyst in 1996, where he focused on telecommunications and technology investments.Coatue Management
In 1999, Laffont founded Coatue Management, named after a beach on Nantucket Island. The firm specializes in technology, media, and telecommunications sectors and operates in both public and private markets. Under Laffont's leadership, Coatue has become one of the most prominent tech-focused hedge funds globally, with assets under management estimated to range from $25 billion to $46 billion.Coatue has invested in major public companies such as Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. The firm is also active in venture capital, backing private companies including ByteDance, Snap, DoorDash, and OpenAI.