Billionaire quant investing pioneer and philanthropist James Simons dies at 86

FILE PHOTO: Hedge fund director James Simons, director of Renaissance Technologies LLC, testifies before a US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the regulation of hedge funds, on Capitol Hill in Washington, November 13, 2008. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

(Reuters) -Billionaire investor James Simons, the mathematician and Cold War code-breaker who founded one of the world's most prominent and profitable hedge funds, Renaissance Technologies, has died at 86, his foundation said on Friday.

The Simons Foundation did not give a cause of death.