David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management significantly increased its conviction in Amazon and Uber in the first quarter of 2026, adding a combined $579 million to its positions in the two tech giants while shedding airline stocks and trimming its China exposure.
"The filings show a clear rotation toward platform-based tech and away from sectors facing macroeconomic headwinds," said Hannah Park, a former Moody's analyst. "Tepper is doubling down on resilient e-commerce and mobility leaders while taking risk off the table in areas like air travel and Chinese equities, where the outlook is less certain."
The fund’s 13F filing for the period ending March 31 showed it purchased an additional 2.1 million shares of Amazon, raising the total value of its holdings to $900 million and making it the portfolio's largest position. Appaloosa also acquired 4.5 million more shares of Uber, bringing its total stake to $455 million. The firm's overall portfolio size decreased by nearly $1 billion to just under $6 billion.
The first-quarter adjustments signal a strategic repositioning for Appaloosa. The complete exit from its holdings in American, Delta, and United airlines suggests a bearish view on the travel sector as higher fuel costs cut into margins. The fund also reduced its Alibaba holdings to 3.5 million shares, a significant cut that reduces its exposure to Chinese technology firms amid ongoing regulatory and geopolitical uncertainty.
Appaloosa’s concentrated buying in Amazon and Uber occurred as other prominent hedge fund managers took divergent positions. The quarter’s 13F filings reveal a split among top investors on the direction of megacap technology stocks.
Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square also increased its Amazon stake by 19 percent, reinforcing a shared conviction with Tepper. However, Stanley Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Family Office took the opposite side of the trade, slashing its Amazon position from over 737,000 shares to just 9,539. Druckenmiller’s fund also completely exited its 385,000-share position in Alphabet.
The repositioning among these managers highlights different readings of the market. While Tepper and Ackman are concentrating their bets on Amazon's durable e-commerce and cloud growth, Druckenmiller appears to be de-risking from the largest tech names. Meanwhile, Christopher Hohn's TCI Fund Management aggressively bought Alphabet shares while dramatically cutting its Microsoft stake, a position that Ackman's Pershing Square was initiating. Daniel Loeb's Third Point also entered new positions in both Alphabet and Meta, further illustrating the lack of a monolithic view among Wall Street's most influential investors.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
