Mega-billionaire Ken Griffin Wants to Own Our World

The finance titan has long labored to assemble a globe-spanning empire reaching anyone involved in the world’s capital markets. The latest phase faces some challenges, and he now has Silicon Valley investors to accommodate.

The popular image of Ken Griffin is that of a master manipulator of financial markets, the bogeyman of a generation of memestockers who spin conspiracy theories about his company, Citadel Securities, interfering with their ability to trade shares of GameStop. But two decades ago, when his hedge fund was still young, Griffin was the one who seemed intimidated.

“I hate this,” said Griffin.

The Citadel hedge fund founder’s palms were sweating as he muttered those words to Mark Yusko, the man seated next to him outside a Chicago hotel ballroom. After years of pleading, Yusko had finally convinced Griffin, then in his early 30s, to speak about his firm’s strategy at an investment conference. “He really did not want to do it,” Yusko recalled.