Pimco Fund Manager Exits to Start Artificial Intelligence Firm

(Bloomberg) -- Hao Zou, a portfolio manager at Pimco, has left to start a firm providing an artificial intelligence platform for hedge funds, family offices and other institutional investors.

Zou, who worked on the global trading desk at Pimco in Newport Beach, Calif., said he’s talking to potential customers about the specific products he’ll offer before he starts hiring or raising money for the new venture, which doesn’t have a name yet.

“I’ve got a lot of excited folks who want to join the venture, but I want to fine-tune the area we’ll be focusing on,” Zou, 29, said in an interview. “I want to be very prudent over the next three to six months and make sure all the risks are eliminated.”

Zou, a native of China, earned an MBA, a master’s degree in economics and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 2011 before joining Pimco the same year. 

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