Here's a link[0] to my (non-monetized, WIP) blog about Renaissance Technologies[1] who were one of the first ones to use statistical arbitrage. Others were D.E. Shaw[2] and Pete Mueller at Morgan Stanley (later PDT Partners[3].)

[0] https://sileret.com/blog/renaissance-technologies/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_Technologies [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Muller_(businessman_and_s... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDT_Partners

Statarb, the pair trading form, has been known since more than 20 years

Thorpe has some interesting (unfortunately online the wayback machine has them) articles on stat-arb and his (modest) discovery of black-scholes from the 90s