Investing

This Millionaire's Hedge Fund Has 67% of His Portfolio in Just 4 Tech Stocks

Rich Duprey

Published: January 14, 2025 8:37 am

Brad Gerstner is not a household name for many investors. Still, his Altimeter Capital hedge fund has grown from $3 million at its founding in 2008 to some $6.75 billion in assets under management today. 

Between 2011 and 2022, Altimeter generated annual average returns of 29.5%, though over the last three years, it has underperformed the market, losing about 2.8% annually.

Today, the millionaire hedge fund operator is largely a tech investor with over two-thirds of his portfolio targeting the sector. Gertsner likes to make big bets on stocks and his top four holdings, all tech giants, comprise almost 63% of his portfolio. Let’s look at each and see whether they warrant your interest as well.

24/7 Wall St. Insights:

• Altimeter Capital‘s Brad Gertsner has $6.75 billion in AUM and uses it to invest heavily in the technology sector.
• His top four holdings represent more than two-thirds of the portfolio, showing Gertsner’s willingness to bet big on some stocks.
• He generated nearly 30% annual returns for over a decade, though he’s run into some headwinds in more recent periods.
• If you’re looking for some stocks with huge potential, make sure to grab a free copy of our brand-new “The Next NVIDIA” report. It features a software stock we’re confident has 10X potential.

Nvidia (NVDA)

With Gerstner’s pedigree, it’s not surprising artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) is one of his largest holdings. He owns 7.8 million shares worth $947 million, which represents 14% of Altimeter’s portfolio. With an average buy-in price of just over $19 a share, Gertsner is sitting on a 588% return.

As we enter the age of AI, Nvidia is the clear front-runner in the space. Its latest, most-powerful Blackwell AI accelerator is due to be released soon, but the chipmaker is already working on the next-generation accelerator, code-named Rubin, which it plans to release in the third quarter.

Nvidia is also looking well beyond the current generative AI landscape to the multi-trillion-dollar opportunity that comes next, “agentic AI,” and onto “physical AI” that follows after. While NVDA stock is pricey, the AI chipmaker still looks like a good long-term investment.

Snowflake (SNOW)

Cloud computing software solutions provider Snowflake (NASDAQ:SNOW) is one of Gerstner’s longest held stocks. He led the tech stock’s 2016 series C funding, when it was still privately held, and was there at its IPO in 2020. Today, Gerstner owns 8.6 million shares worth $993 million, making it Altimeter’s third-largest holding accounting for 14.7% of the total. 

Over the past year, however, Gerstner has steadily sold down shares. In Q3 2023, he owned as much as 15.4 million shares, meaning he reduced his exposure by 44%. Over that time frame, SNOW stock fell 28%, though shares are up 51% from their low point.

It was a late entrant into generative AI with its Arctic large language model (LLM) that was going up against, bigger, better financed rivals including ChatGPT, Llama, Claude, and others. 

The turnaround in its stock, however, was directly attributable to AI as it noted 400 new customers were added in the the third quarter, many who came aboard because of its AI technology. With a 25% jump in the number of customers spending $1 million or more annually, Snowflake could be on the road to recovery.

Uber Technologies (UBER)

Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) is another company Gerstner invested in early when it was still a privately-held business and hung on through its IPO. Today Altimeter Capital owns 13.3 million shares worth $1 billion, making it the second-largest position at 14.8% of the portfolio. His stake in the mobility platform has largely remained unchanged over the past year.

Uber is wildly successful today. In the third quarter, it reported monthly active users grew 13% year-over-year while bookings grew 16%. It generated over $1 billion in operating profits, up 169% from last year, while free cash flow more than doubled to $2.1 billion.

The company’s name has become synonymous with ride-sharing and it is growing profit margins and generating cash hand over fist. With Wall Street forecasting earnings will grow over 40% annually over the next five years, UBER stock trades at a fraction of that growth rate. It makes Uber Technologies an attractive investment still.

Meta Platforms (META)

The largest position in Altimeter Capital’s portfolio is Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The social media platform is also a leader in AI and its Llama LLM is one of the biggest generative AI assistants. Gerstner owns almost 2.3 million shares valued at $1.3 billion, or 19.2% of the portfolio.

Because Meta relies upon advertising for its revenue, the social media stock has ridden the rebound in digital ad spending to a fivefold increase since its October 2022 lows. META stock now trades near all-time highs of $608 a share. Although it faces some headwinds from a class-action lawsuit by advertisers over misrepresenting the reach of ads across its family of platforms, the long-term outlook remains bright for the company.

Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp enjoy 3.3 billion daily active users globally, or more than 40% of the world’s population. While X may seem more in tune with today’s zeitgeist, people are still turning to Facebook and other Meta social media platforms in overwhelming numbers.

As CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues to push forward on new products, AI, and expanding the reach of existing ones, Meta Platforms has plenty of room to run.