Hedge Funds Boost Spending on Alternative Data by 17%

- The global alternative data market was valued at approximately $11.65 billion in 2024 and is forecasted to grow to $135.72 billion by 2030. Hedge fund operators are the primary users, accounting for 68% of the market in 2024. - A 2026 survey of hedge funds and asset managers indicated that 94% plan to increase their spending on alternative data. The majority of these firms allocate between $500,000 and $2.5 million annually for acquiring datasets, managing the data, and staffing. - For talent acquisition, hedge funds analyze job posting data to gain early signals about a company's expansion, potential restructuring, or strategic shifts before they are made public. A surge in engineering and product roles, for example, can signal a company's growth trajectory post-IPO. - The drive to leverage alternative data has fueled an aggressive hiring push for artificial intelligence specialists, with firms poaching talent from major tech companies like Google DeepMind. This has led to a subsequent talent shortage for core, non-AI software engineering roles that are critical for trading systems and data infrastructure. - Beyond investment decisions, this data is used to create a new class of hybrid "quantamental" roles, which merge traditional financial analysis with data science skills. Nearly all funds (98%) combine alternative data with fundamental analysis, driving demand for professionals who possess both data proficiency and market intuition. - The most common types of alternative data purchased include credit and debit card transactions, which dominated the market with a 17.2% revenue share in 2024, along with web-scraped data and social media sentiment.