Phillipe Laffont

Philippe Laffont (born 1967) is a Belgian 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 Philippe Laffont was born in Belgium to a French family and holds French nationality. From an early age, he developed a strong interest in computers and technology, and reportedly dreamed of working at Apple as a teenager.

He later moved to the United States to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a degree in computer science. Despite his technical background, Laffont later described himself humorously as a “repressed mediocre computer scientist.”

After graduating, he briefly worked at McKinsey & Company in Madrid before moving into finance.

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.

Coatue has invested in major public companies such as Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). The firm is also active in venture capital, backing private companies including ByteDance, Snap, DoorDash, and OpenAI.