[6] Point72 was founded in 2014 by Steve Cohen as the successor to SAC Capital, after the firm pled guilty to federal insider trading charges and paid a $1.8 billion fine.

[12] There are satellite offices in New York City, West Palm Beach, Palo Alto, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, London, Paris, Sydney, and Warsaw.

[15][16][17] In January 2021, along with Ken Griffin's Citadel Investments, Point72 contributed $750 million to a $2.75 billion emergency bailout of Melvin Capital, a hedge fund that had incurred deep losses in the GameStop short squeeze;[18][19][20] Melvin Capital is run by Gabe Plotkin, a former protégé of Steven Cohen and one of the managers of SAC whose trades were investigated by the SEC.

[25][26] The firm has faced multiple lawsuits from employees alleging gender and pay discrimination.

[27][28][29][30] In September 2020, Point72 settled a gender and pay discrimination suit brought by Lauren Bonner, the company’s former Head of Talent Analytics.