How does that relate to finance? I know that protein folding involves massive computation, as it was what our university cluster was being used for 40% of the time.

Sorry, for some reason I only read the first and last sentences of your post. Maybe they are used for economic forecasting by governments?

I don't know why the grandparent mentioned it, but I do know that D.E. Shaw works on both.

There's DE Shaw, the Hedge Fund and DE Shaw Research. Different focus for each entity.