Mathematician's AI trading firm makes him a top UK billionaire

A 46-year-old mathematician, Alex Gertco, has climbed to eighth place on the 2026 UK Rich List, with a net worth of £1.6006 billion, or about ¥14.174 billion. His wealth increased by £7.261 billion from 2025, with an average daily growth of £19.89 million over the past year. Gertco, born in Moscow in 1979, holds a doctorate in mathematics from Moscow State University and a master's in economics from the New Economic School. He founded XTX Markets in 2015, an AI-driven quantitative trading firm with a daily trading volume of $250 billion. XTX uses over 400PB of financial data and large-scale GPU clusters to analyze more than 50,000 financial instruments. Gertco owns 75% of XTX, which has no external investors, and his wealth growth stems from the company's rising valuation. He also founded Axiom Maths and the AIMO Prize, investing in mathematics and AI education. Gertco's success highlights the growing role of AI in quantitative finance, though its returns depend on model performance, risk control, and market conditions. XTX Markets operates without traditional human traders, relying entirely on AI for market-making and trading decisions. The firm processes real-time data across stocks, fixed income, foreign exchange, commodities, and cryptocurrencies to identify cross-market price patterns. Gertco's wealth growth reflects the commercial value of integrating AI with quantitative finance, as data volume, computing power, and model capabilities continue to improve. His status as one of the UK's highest tax-payers underscores the impact of his financial success on the country's tax system. Gertco's achievements demonstrate the potential of AI in reshaping financial markets, though challenges remain in balancing innovation with risk management.