Tepper's Appaloosa Bets Big on Tech and Semiconductor Stocks

David Tepper's Appaloosa Management made a host of major tech-stock purchases in the second quarter, ballooning the hedge fund's holdings to $5.4 billion from $1.9 billion, according to a recent 13F filing.

Big Purchases Across Tech and Semiconductors

Among the fund's largest purchases in the three months ended June of this year were 2.3 million shares of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) valued at about $263 million, about 6.8 million shares of Intel Corp. (INTC) valued at $226.6 million, and 480,000 shares of Apple Inc. (AAPL) worth more than $93 million.

Tepper bought into positions of many leading semiconductor makers as well. The fund purchased almost 1.9 million shares of Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) valued at $220 million, about 1.8 million shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSM) worth $179 million, and almost 1.8 million shares of Marvell Technology Inc. (MRVL) worth $104.6 million.

New positions also include $104 million in Broadcom Inc. (AVGO), $88 million worth of Micron Technology Inc. (MU) shares, $58 million in ASML Holding (ASML) stock, and stakes in Arista Networks (ANET), Cadence Design Systems Inc. (CDNS), Lam Research Corp. (LRCX), and Synopsys (SNPS).

One of the few new non-tech positions was 4.8 million shares of Southwestern Energy (SWN).

Appaloosa's new positions include several Chinese companies. The firm bought 1.3 million shares, or $174.6 million worth, of Baidu Inc. (BIDU), 750,000 shares of PDD Holdings Inc. (PDD) valued at about $52 million, and 1.9 million shares of JD.com Inc. (JD) valued at $64 million, for example. Tepper also entered positions in China-focused ETFs by iShares and KraneShares.

Appaloosa Tweaked Many Positions

Appaloosa also made many additions to existing stakes last quarter. The company bought about 2.2 million shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA), bringing its total to 4.8 million shares worth almost $373 million. It also added roughly 1.2 million shares of Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) for a new total of over $412 million.

Tepper's hedge fund more than doubled its position in Meta Platforms Inc. (META), adding more than 800,000 shares. It purchase roughly 1 million additional shares of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), about 900,000 shares of NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA), and 1.2 million shares of Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER).

Smaller additions include Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), Antero Resources Corp. (AR), Caesars Entertainment Inc. (CZR), FedEx Corp. (FDX), and UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH).

Appaloosa also reduced its positions in a number of energy companies. It trimmed positions in Constellation Energy Corp. (CEG), Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK), Energy Transfer LP (ET), Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD), and MPLX LP (MPLX).

Outside of the energy space, the firm sold off 1 million shares of Macy's Inc. (M) and about 500,000 shares of EQT Corp. (EQT) during the quarter.

Tepper Exits ETFs, Positions in Disney, Tesla, and More

During the second quarter, Appaloosa exited its $31-million position in Tesla Inc. (TSLA), its $30-million stake in Walt Disney Co. (DIS), and its $58-million Salesforce Inc. (CRM) holdings. It also exited positions in HCA Healthcare (HCA), Match Group (MTCH), and Sysco Corp. (SYY).

In addition, Tepper exited positions in ETFs from ARK Invest and ALPS.