Qin Xiao, the former Co-Head of Goldman Sachs’ global commodities trading unit, has raised around $1bn from Millennium Management to seed his new hedge fund, Nexus Commodities Capital Management, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The report cites unnamed people familiar with the matter as revealing that the Singapore-based firm is set to begin trading later this year, with Qin running a separately managed account for Millennium alongside capital from other investors.

Qin – known in trading circles as QX – becomes the latest high-profile trader to secure backing from a major mult-istrategy firm, as Millennium continues its push to allocate to external talent. Recent allocations have also gone to Ravi Naresh, formerly of Marshall Wace, and Thomas Wong’s Optimas Capital.

A graduate of Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore, Qin spent more than two decades at Goldman Sachs, where he oversaw some of the bank’s most profitable post-pandemic commodity trades. He was named Co-Head of Commodities in late 2023 alongside Nitin Jindal, and previously ran the division across Asia and EMEA.

Qin’s new team includes former Goldman colleagues Mark Ma, previously head of Asia bulk commodity trading, and Wang Yang, a Shanghai-based trader.