Brad Gerstner bets $100M on Trump Accounts as Altimeter returns 50%

Brad Gerstner stood beside President Trump in the Oval Office last week to launch Trump Accounts, a federal program providing $1,000 investment accounts for children born between 2025 and 2028, as the Altimeter Capital CEO pledged up to $100 million of his own money.

"This will be as big or bigger than Social Security," Gerstner, 55, founder and CEO of Altimeter Capital Management, said in an interview.

The program, included in last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, allows parents to contribute up to $5,000 per year and employers up to $2,500 per year. Gerstner's Invest America Charitable Foundation is coordinating philanthropic contributions from billionaires including Michael Dell, Ray Dalio and SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, who donated roughly $320 million in SpaceX stock. Altimeter's stock-picking funds returned roughly 50% through June, boosted by AI chip investments in Kioxia Holdings, Cerebras Systems and SK Hynix, according to a person familiar with the firm's performance.

For Gerstner, the initiative represents the culmination of a three-year push to give every American child a direct stake in the stock market. He predicts $100 billion in additional commitments over the next 12 months from corporations, philanthropists and families, a figure that would make Trump Accounts one of the largest public-private wealth-building programs in U.S. history.

From Snowflake to the White House

Gerstner founded Altimeter in Boston during the 2008 financial crisis after working at PAR Capital Management, a hedge fund focused on airline and travel stocks. He moved to Silicon Valley and launched the firm's first venture fund in 2013. In 2020, Altimeter hit its biggest win: a roughly $200 million venture investment in Snowflake that was valued at about $9 billion on the company's first trading day.

The firm's fortunes reversed in the 2022 tech-stock bear market, when its funds suffered losses of as much as 66%, people familiar with the matter said. Altimeter's investment in FTX also soured after the crypto exchange's collapse that November. The recovery has been sharp. This year's gains have been driven by AI chip companies, with Nvidia remaining one of Altimeter's biggest hedge-fund holdings.

A policy born from a poker game

Gerstner's path to Washington began in April 2024, when professional poker player Phil Hellmuth bumped into Sen. Ted Cruz at a Las Vegas tournament. Hellmuth told the Texas Republican about Invest America and connected him with Gerstner. Cruz introduced the Invest America Act in May 2025. Michael Dell, the Dell Technologies founder, helped secure Gerstner's White House meeting with Trump, where Gerstner showed the president a minute-long AI-generated video about the idea.

The program has drawn bipartisan praise. Maryland Governor Wes Moore, a Democrat and frequent Trump critic, called it "a smart policy" while lamenting that Trump put his name on it. Critics have raised concerns: the Cato Institute warned of "double-taxation" on the accounts, and Morningstar advised parents to take the free $1,000 but steer additional savings toward 529 plans or individual retirement accounts.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.