Viking Global Investors
Viking Global Investors is a global multi-strategy investment firm founded in 1999 by ex-Tiger Management manager Andreas Halvorsen, deploying more than $55 billion across public equity, private equity, and credit from Stamford, Connecticut. Water is not its thesis: as of 2026, (don't) Waste Water tracks one water-adjacent holding, the PFAS cleanup biotech Allonnia, across four deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Viking Global Investors is one of the original 'Tiger cubs,' launched in 1999 by Andreas Halvorsen after he learned long-short stock-picking under Julian Robertson at Tiger Management. It has since grown into a multi-strategy giant managing more than $55 billion across public stocks, private companies, and credit, with over 45 investment professionals spread across Stamford, New York, London, Hong Kong, and San Francisco.
Viking has no water practice, no water fund, and no water partner. Water reaches a firm this size sideways, through a private bet whose science happens to touch it, rather than through any deliberate environmental strategy. For a sector used to specialist funds and utility money, a generalist hedge fund of this scale is an unusual name to see backing a water company at all.
Viking Global's single water-adjacent holding is Allonnia, a Boston synthetic-biology company spun out of Ginkgo Bioworks. Allonnia engineers microbes and enzymes to break down waste that conventional chemistry struggles with, including PFAS, the 'forever chemicals' that contaminate drinking water; its SAFF process strips roughly 99% of target PFAS from contaminated water. The bet sits inside Viking's private-investments book, run by Brian Kaufmann, alongside co-investors such as General Atlantic, Battelle, and BHP Ventures.
Viking Global, for a water founder, is a long-shot institutional cheque: a $55-billion generalist that has wandered into water exactly once, through biology rather than infrastructure. The open question is whether Allonnia stays a one-off or the first sign that Viking starts treating environmental remediation as a genuine private-equity lane.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 1 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Viking Global Investors invest in?
- Viking Global Investors is a generalist multi-strategy firm, not a water specialist. It invests across public equity, private equity, and credit in sectors such as technology, healthcare, financials, and consumer. The only water-adjacent bet (don't) Waste Water tracks is Allonnia, a PFAS-cleanup biotech, one company across four deals.
- Is Viking Global Investors a water fund?
- No. Viking Global Investors is a roughly $55 billion global investment firm with no water fund, no water team, and no water thesis. Water shows up incidentally through one private holding, the synthetic-biology company Allonnia, whose technology removes PFAS 'forever chemicals' from contaminated water.
- Who runs Viking Global Investors?
- Viking Global Investors is led by co-founder and chief executive Andreas Halvorsen, who started the firm in 1999 after working at Julian Robertson's Tiger Management. Justin Walsh is chief investment officer for public equity, and Brian Kaufmann heads the private-investments team where its water-adjacent deals sit.
- Where is Viking Global Investors based?
- Viking Global Investors is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, with additional offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, and San Francisco. The firm manages more than $55 billion and employs over 275 people, including more than 45 investment professionals across its five offices.
- Is Viking Global Investors the same as Viking Therapeutics or Viking Cruises?
- No. Viking Global Investors is a Stamford-based hedge fund and investment firm founded by Andreas Halvorsen. It is unrelated to Viking Therapeutics, the Nasdaq-listed biotech, and to Viking Cruises and Viking Holdings, the travel company. They share only the common word 'Viking.'