Latest news with #LonePineCapital
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Billionaires Stanley Druckenmiller and Stephen Mandel Both Exited Their Stakes in Nvidia and Have Piled Into This Leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Instead
Quarterly-filed Form 13Fs offer investors a way to track which stocks Wall Street's preeminent money managers are buying and selling. Over a 12-to-15-month span following June 2023, Duquesne Family Office's Stanley Druckenmiller and Lone Pine Capital's Stephen Mandel sent their respective Nvidia positions packing. However, these two billionaire asset managers can't stop buying a world-leading chip company that plays an indispensable role for the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › Data is Wall Street's currency, and there's an abundance of it to go around. Between earnings season -- the six-week stretch each quarter where most S&P 500 companies report their operating results -- and economic data releases, there's an almost overwhelming amount of information for investors to absorb. Occasionally, something important can fall through the cracks. For example, May 15 marked the deadline for institutional investors overseeing at least $100 million in assets under management to file Form 13F with the Securities and Exchange Commission -- and you might have missed it. This filing, which is due no later than 45 calendar days following the end to a quarter, details which stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and (select) stock options Wall Street's brightest money managers purchased and sold in the latest quarter. It can offer big-time clues as to which influential stocks are garnering interest or falling out of favor. While Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett is the stock market's most-followed money manager, he's far from the only billionaire investor known to move markets. For instance, Duquesne Family Office's Stanley Druckenmiller and Lone Pine Capital's Stephen Mandel have exemplary investment track records of their own, along with billions of dollars in assets under management. What's particularly noteworthy about the first-quarter 13Fs from Druckenmiller's and Mandel's respective funds has been their approach to the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. Both billionaires have dumped the preeminent AI stock on Wall Street in favor of a company that's critical to enterprise AI data centers. With the analysts at PwC pegging the addressable market for artificial intelligence at $15.7 trillion by 2030, there's room for hundreds of businesses to get their piece of the pie. However, no company has been a more direct beneficiary of the evolution of AI than Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). It's also the stock billionaires Stanley Druckenmiller and Stephen Mandel sent packing. Accounting for Nvidia's 10-for-1 forward split in June 2024, Duquesne Family Office held 9,500,750 shares in the June-ended quarter of 2023. Meanwhile, Lone Pine Capital possessed 6,416,490 shares of Nvidia, also at the end of June 2023. But over the following 15 months for Druckenmiller and 12 months for Mandel, both billionaires would oversee the complete purge of their respective fund's Nvidia holdings. While there's no denying that Nvidia's Hopper (H100) graphics processing unit (GPU) and Blackwell GPU architecture are the preferred options in AI-accelerated data centers, and it's pretty clear that no other external competitors are particularly close to challenging Nvidia's hardware in terms of compute abilities, there are still viable reasons for Druckenmiller and Mandel to have cashed in their chips. One obvious reason to sell is simple profit-taking. Nvidia stock skyrocketed from early 2023 into late 2024, which increased its valuation by more than $3 trillion. We've never witnessed a megacap business add $3 trillion in market cap so quickly before, which may have encouraged these two billionaires to lock in their gains. But there might be more than just profit-taking behind this selling activity. For instance, it's only logical to expect competitive pressures to mount in the hardware arena. Even though Hopper and Blackwell hold most of the AI-GPU market share in high-compute data centers, external competitors are ramping up production of existing chips and bringing more energy-efficient hardware to market. What's more, many of Nvidia's top customers by net sales are developing AI-GPUs and AI solutions of their own. Even though these chips aren't going to be as fast as the Hopper or Blackwell, they're expected to be considerably cheaper and they won't be backlogged like Nvidia's hardware. This is a direct threat to the AI-GPU scarcity that's afforded Nvidia superior pricing power for its GPUs. History isn't exactly in Nvidia's corner, either. Despite AI supporting a lofty addressable market, every next-big-thing technology and innovation for more than three decades has endured an early stage bubble-bursting event. In short, investors have a historically strong tendency to overestimate how quickly a new innovation will gain utility and be adopted on a mainstream basis. With artificial intelligence likely needing time to mature as a technology, it's the most-direct beneficiary, Nvidia, which could feel the pain if a bubble forms and bursts. While Duquesne's and Lone Pine's billionaire chiefs pared down the number of stocks they're holding amid a volatile first quarter, there's one artificial intelligence stock both have been buying -- and it plays a vital role in the expansion of AI-accelerated data centers. The new AI apple of Druckenmiller's and Mandel's eye is none other than leading chip fabrication company Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM), which is more commonly known as "TSMC." Duquesne more than quintupled its existing stake by adding 491,265 shares of TSMC during the March-ended quarter, while Lone Pine's 13F shows that 104,937 shares of TSMC were purchased in the first quarter of 2025. Most AI-GPU companies rely on Taiwan Semi's fabrication services, including industry leader Nvidia and key rival Advanced Micro Devices. TSMC is in the process of rapidly expanding its monthly chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) capacity from approximately 35,000 units in 2024 to an estimated 135,000 units monthly by 2026. CoWoS is a technology used to package high-bandwidth memory, which is necessary for high-compute data centers where software and systems are making split-second decisions. With demand for AI-GPUs overwhelming their supply over the last two years, TSMC has enjoyed a significant backlog for its chip fabrication services and has seen more its net sales skew toward high-performance computing, which can yield higher margins for the company. On a year-over-year basis, TSMC's net sales from high-performance computing surged from 46% to 59%, as of the March-ended quarter. Although the possible bursting of an AI bubble would be a concern for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the company's order backlog and revenue diversification offers some semblance of protection. For instance, 28% of net sales in the first quarter derived from advanced chips used in smartphones. Apple prominently leans on TSMC for the chips used in the iPhone. The great thing about smartphones and wireless service access is they've both evolved into basic necessities for most Americans. Even though demand for smartphone chips isn't growing as quickly as it once did, the cash flow from this segment tends to be highly predictable for TSMC. Taiwan Semi has a long runway of opportunity in Internet of Things and automotive, as well. As homes and vehicles become more technology-dependent, companies like TSMC will be relied on to manufacture these advanced chips. Lastly, Druckenmiller and Mandel may have been encouraged by the dip in Taiwan Semiconductor's stock in the first quarter. Though TSMC stock isn't (currently) historically inexpensive, its shares did drop to a forward price-to-earnings ratio of nearly 15 during tail-end of the March quarter. This makes for an attractive multiple, when compared to Nvidia. Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $651,049!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $828,224!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 979% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025 Sean Williams has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Billionaires Stanley Druckenmiller and Stephen Mandel Both Exited Their Stakes in Nvidia and Have Piled Into This Leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Instead was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio


Globe and Mail
6 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Billionaires Stanley Druckenmiller and Stephen Mandel Both Exited Their Stakes in Nvidia and Have Piled Into This Leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Instead
Data is Wall Street's currency, and there's an abundance of it to go around. Between earnings season -- the six-week stretch each quarter where most S&P 500 companies report their operating results -- and economic data releases, there's an almost overwhelming amount of information for investors to absorb. Occasionally, something important can fall through the cracks. For example, May 15 marked the deadline for institutional investors overseeing at least $100 million in assets under management to file Form 13F with the Securities and Exchange Commission -- and you might have missed it. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue » This filing, which is due no later than 45 calendar days following the end to a quarter, details which stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and (select) stock options Wall Street's brightest money managers purchased and sold in the latest quarter. It can offer big-time clues as to which influential stocks are garnering interest or falling out of favor. While Berkshire Hathaway 's Warren Buffett is the stock market's most-followed money manager, he's far from the only billionaire investor known to move markets. For instance, Duquesne Family Office's Stanley Druckenmiller and Lone Pine Capital's Stephen Mandel have exemplary investment track records of their own, along with billions of dollars in assets under management. What's particularly noteworthy about the first-quarter 13Fs from Druckenmiller's and Mandel's respective funds has been their approach to the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. Both billionaires have dumped the preeminent AI stock on Wall Street in favor of a company that's critical to enterprise AI data centers. Billionaires Druckenmiller and Mandel have completely dumped their Nvidia stock With the analysts at PwC pegging the addressable market for artificial intelligence at $15.7 trillion by 2030, there's room for hundreds of businesses to get their piece of the pie. However, no company has been a more direct beneficiary of the evolution of AI than Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). It's also the stock billionaires Stanley Druckenmiller and Stephen Mandel sent packing. Accounting for Nvidia's 10-for-1 forward split in June 2024, Duquesne Family Office held 9,500,750 shares in the June-ended quarter of 2023. Meanwhile, Lone Pine Capital possessed 6,416,490 shares of Nvidia, also at the end of June 2023. But over the following 15 months for Druckenmiller and 12 months for Mandel, both billionaires would oversee the complete purge of their respective fund's Nvidia holdings. While there's no denying that Nvidia's Hopper (H100) graphics processing unit (GPU) and Blackwell GPU architecture are the preferred options in AI-accelerated data centers, and it's pretty clear that no other external competitors are particularly close to challenging Nvidia's hardware in terms of compute abilities, there are still viable reasons for Druckenmiller and Mandel to have cashed in their chips. One obvious reason to sell is simple profit-taking. Nvidia stock skyrocketed from early 2023 into late 2024, which increased its valuation by more than $3 trillion. We've never witnessed a megacap business add $3 trillion in market cap so quickly before, which may have encouraged these two billionaires to lock in their gains. But there might be more than just profit-taking behind this selling activity. For instance, it's only logical to expect competitive pressures to mount in the hardware arena. Even though Hopper and Blackwell hold most of the AI-GPU market share in high-compute data centers, external competitors are ramping up production of existing chips and bringing more energy-efficient hardware to market. What's more, many of Nvidia's top customers by net sales are developing AI-GPUs and AI solutions of their own. Even though these chips aren't going to be as fast as the Hopper or Blackwell, they're expected to be considerably cheaper and they won't be backlogged like Nvidia's hardware. This is a direct threat to the AI-GPU scarcity that's afforded Nvidia superior pricing power for its GPUs. History isn't exactly in Nvidia's corner, either. Despite AI supporting a lofty addressable market, every next-big-thing technology and innovation for more than three decades has endured an early stage bubble-bursting event. In short, investors have a historically strong tendency to overestimate how quickly a new innovation will gain utility and be adopted on a mainstream basis. With artificial intelligence likely needing time to mature as a technology, it's the most-direct beneficiary, Nvidia, which could feel the pain if a bubble forms and bursts. This is the new AI apple of Druckenmiller's and Mandel's eye While Duquesne's and Lone Pine's billionaire chiefs pared down the number of stocks they're holding amid a volatile first quarter, there's one artificial intelligence stock both have been buying -- and it plays a vital role in the expansion of AI-accelerated data centers. The new AI apple of Druckenmiller's and Mandel's eye is none other than leading chip fabrication company Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM), which is more commonly known as "TSMC." Duquesne more than quintupled its existing stake by adding 491,265 shares of TSMC during the March-ended quarter, while Lone Pine's 13F shows that 104,937 shares of TSMC were purchased in the first quarter of 2025. Most AI-GPU companies rely on Taiwan Semi's fabrication services, including industry leader Nvidia and key rival Advanced Micro Devices. TSMC is in the process of rapidly expanding its monthly chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) capacity from approximately 35,000 units in 2024 to an estimated 135,000 units monthly by 2026. CoWoS is a technology used to package high-bandwidth memory, which is necessary for high-compute data centers where software and systems are making split-second decisions. With demand for AI-GPUs overwhelming their supply over the last two years, TSMC has enjoyed a significant backlog for its chip fabrication services and has seen more its net sales skew toward high-performance computing, which can yield higher margins for the company. On a year-over-year basis, TSMC's net sales from high-performance computing surged from 46% to 59%, as of the March-ended quarter. Although the possible bursting of an AI bubble would be a concern for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the company's order backlog and revenue diversification offers some semblance of protection. For instance, 28% of net sales in the first quarter derived from advanced chips used in smartphones. Apple prominently leans on TSMC for the chips used in the iPhone. The great thing about smartphones and wireless service access is they've both evolved into basic necessities for most Americans. Even though demand for smartphone chips isn't growing as quickly as it once did, the cash flow from this segment tends to be highly predictable for TSMC. Taiwan Semi has a long runway of opportunity in Internet of Things and automotive, as well. As homes and vehicles become more technology-dependent, companies like TSMC will be relied on to manufacture these advanced chips. Lastly, Druckenmiller and Mandel may have been encouraged by the dip in Taiwan Semiconductor's stock in the first quarter. Though TSMC stock isn't (currently) historically inexpensive, its shares did drop to a forward price-to-earnings ratio of nearly 15 during tail-end of the March quarter. This makes for an attractive multiple, when compared to Nvidia. Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now? Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $651,049!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $828,224!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is979% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to171%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025


CNA
21-05-2025
- Business
- CNA
Fintech Airwallex valued at over $6 billion in latest funding round
Payments firm Airwallex said on Wednesday it was valued at $6.2 billion in its latest fundraise of $300 million. The round, which included investors like Square Peg, DST Global, Lone Pine Capital and Blackbird, brings Airwallex's total funding to over $1.2 billion. Airwallex said that the added capital would be used to enter new markets and refine its technology.


Reuters
21-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Fintech Airwallex valued at over $6 billion in latest funding round
May 21 (Reuters) - Payments firm Airwallex said on Wednesday it was valued at $6.2 billion in its latest fundraise of $300 million. The round, which included investors like Square Peg, DST Global, Lone Pine Capital and Blackbird, brings Airwallex's total funding to over $1.2 billion. Airwallex said that the added capital would be used to enter new markets and refine its technology.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Steve Mandel's Strategic Moves: Carvana Co. Takes Center Stage with 4.18% Portfolio Impact
Warning! GuruFocus has detected 2 Warning Sign with META. Steve Mandel (Trades, Portfolio) recently submitted the 13F filing for the first quarter of 2025, providing insights into his investment moves during this period. Steve Mandel (Trades, Portfolio) is the founder of Lone Pine Capital, a long/short equity money manager, which he started in 1997. Prior to founding LPC, Mr. Mandel was senior managing director and consumer analyst at Tiger Management (Trades, Portfolio) Corporation (1990-1997), mass-market retailing analyst at Goldman, Sachs (1984-1990) and senior consultant at Mars and Company (1982-1984). Lone Pine Capital is named after a tree at his alma mater Dartmouth College that survived a lightning strike. Mandel previously worked at Tiger Management (Trades, Portfolio) under Julian Robertson. Lone Pine Capital invests in public equity markets across the globe, and utilizes long-short strategy. The firm uses fundamental analysis and bottom up stock picking to build the portfolio. Mandel uses both value and growth methodologies, and does not hold many stocks for very long. Steve Mandel (Trades, Portfolio) added a total of 4 stocks, among them: The most significant addition was Carvana Co (NYSE:CVNA), with 2,314,168 shares, accounting for 4.18% of the portfolio and a total value of $483.85 million. The second largest addition to the portfolio was Toll Brothers Inc (NYSE:TOL), consisting of 3,800,580 shares, representing approximately 3.47% of the portfolio, with a total value of $401.30 million. The third largest addition was Cadence Design Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CDNS), with 1,218,389 shares, accounting for 2.68% of the portfolio and a total value of $309.87 million. Steve Mandel (Trades, Portfolio) also increased stakes in a total of 10 stocks, among them: The most notable increase was Intuit Inc (NASDAQ:INTU), with an additional 247,040 shares, bringing the total to 1,403,802 shares. This adjustment represents a significant 21.36% increase in share count, a 1.31% impact on the current portfolio, with a total value of $861.92 million. The second largest increase was AppLovin Corp (NASDAQ:APP), with an additional 508,815 shares, bringing the total to 1,593,928. This adjustment represents a significant 46.89% increase in share count, with a total value of $422.34 million. Steve Mandel (Trades, Portfolio) completely exited 12 of the holdings in the first quarter of 2025, as detailed below: PTC Inc (NASDAQ:PTC): Steve Mandel (Trades, Portfolio) sold all 2,326,231 shares, resulting in a -3.18% impact on the portfolio. Spotify Technology SA (NYSE:SPOT): Steve Mandel (Trades, Portfolio) liquidated all 913,564 shares, causing a -3.04% impact on the portfolio. Steve Mandel (Trades, Portfolio) also reduced positions in 7 stocks. The most significant changes include: Reduced Philip Morris International Inc (NYSE:PM) by 3,459,830 shares, resulting in a -53.49% decrease in shares and a -3.09% impact on the portfolio. The stock traded at an average price of $141.65 during the quarter and has returned 13.41% over the past 3 months and 41.78% year-to-date. Reduced Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY) by 231,033 shares, resulting in a -29.51% reduction in shares and a -1.33% impact on the portfolio. The stock traded at an average price of $832.09 during the quarter and has returned -13.15% over the past 3 months and -4.85% year-to-date. At the first quarter of 2025, Steve Mandel (Trades, Portfolio)'s portfolio included 24 stocks, with top holdings including 8.75% in Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META), 7.44% in Intuit Inc (NASDAQ:INTU), 7.15% in Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), 6.36% in Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), and 5.6% in Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ:SBUX). The holdings are mainly concentrated in 7 of all the 11 industries: Technology, Consumer Cyclical, Financial Services, Communication Services, Utilities, Consumer Defensive, and Healthcare. This article, generated by GuruFocus, is designed to provide general insights and is not tailored financial advice. Our commentary is rooted in historical data and analyst projections, utilizing an impartial methodology, and is not intended to serve as specific investment guidance. It does not formulate a recommendation to purchase or divest any stock and does not consider individual investment objectives or financial circumstances. Our objective is to deliver long-term, fundamental data-driven analysis. Be aware that our analysis might not incorporate the most recent, price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative information. GuruFocus holds no position in the stocks mentioned herein. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio