D1 Capital Partners was founded in July 2018 by Daniel Sundheim,[1] who is a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets.[5] "D1" stands for "Day One,"[6] a concept espoused by Amazon.com, Inc.'s Jeff Bezos as detailed in Amazon's 1997 Letter to Shareholders.[7] Sundheim was previously the Chief Investment Officer of Viking Global Investors[8] and put in more than $500 million of his own money to start the firm.[9] D1 Capital Partners is usually grouped with other Tiger Cub funds due to the firm being spun out from one.[10]
The firm originally managed $3 billion of capital, which rose to $20 billion by the end of 2020 with annualized returns of nearly 30%.[9] D1 returned 60% in 2020.[8]
In January 2021, the firm lost $4 billion (20% of its capital) due to the GameStop short squeeze.[8] As of April 2021, D1 recouped about 90% of its loss in January.[9]
In June 2021, the firm signed a 10-year lease to open another office in Miami, Florida.[11]
In May 2022, It was reported that the fund lost 23% of its value since the start of the year, with its public equities strategy losing 44%.[12]
Regarding the public markets, the firm invests in publicly traded equities and other related securities such as equity derivatives and convertible bonds. It uses a global Long/short equity strategy focusing on medium to long-term returns.[13]