Latest news with #PhilippeLaffont
Globe and Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Billionaire Philippe Laffont of Coatue Management Is Piling Into 3 Highly Volatile Momentum Stocks
Nothing holds more importance on Wall Street than data. The problem is the amount of data announced via earnings reports and economic releases can easily overwhelm investors and allow something of importance to be overlooked. For instance, May 15 marked the deadline for institutional investors with at least $100 million in assets under management to file Form 13F with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This filing provides investors with a snapshot of which stocks Wall Street's brightest money managers bought and sold in the previous quarter (the first quarter, in this case). Because of earnings season and the monthly inflation report, investors could have easily overlooked this deadline. Even though 13Fs aren't perfect -- they can provide a stale snapshot for active hedge funds -- they're helpful in identifying which stocks and trends are piquing the attention of Wall Street's leading money managers. While Berkshire Hathaway 's Warren Buffett is typically the most-followed of all asset managers, he's not the only billionaire with a keen eye for value or potential moneymakers. Coatue Management's billionaire chief, Philippe Laffont, has an affinity for picking out a mix of growth, value, and momentum stocks for the nearly $22.7 billion investment portfolio he oversees. During the March-ended quarter, Laffont began piling into three highly volatile momentum stocks. QuantumScape The first exceptionally volatile stock that Laffont couldn't seem to get enough of in the first quarter is solid-state lithium-metal batteries developer QuantumScape (NYSE: QS). Coatue's 13F shows that 4,294,995 shares were gobbled up in the March-ended quarter, which in hindsight looks like a smart move. Over a two-day stretch (June 25 and June 26), shares of QuantumScape skyrocketed by 77%. The fire igniting this rally is the company's announcement that its Cobra separator process had entered baseline production. Cobra is QuantumScape's foundational puzzle piece that allows for the mass-production of solid-state batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). More importantly, the company's process aims to meaningfully reduce production costs, all while extending battery life and shortening charging times. In addition to bringing Cobra into baseline production, QuantumScape reached this milestone ahead of schedule. Most startup companies run into unforeseen issues and delays when attempting to get production off the ground. Wall Street is rewarding QuantumScape for exceeding expectations. While the addressable market is sky-high for solid-state batteries in EVs, consumer demand for EVs, for a variety of factors, has been anything from but sky-high of late. Higher auto loan rates, uncertainties regarding the U.S. economy and President Trump's tariff and trade policy, and a lack of EV infrastructure nationwide, are all reasons EV sales have slumped. Until these issues are addressed, there's a lot of fluidity to QuantumScape's future sales. Furthermore, it's fair to be skeptical of a company that, despite entering into baseline production with its newest battery technology, isn't generating any revenue at the moment, is losing a lot of money each quarter, and boasts a $4.3 billion market cap. Suffice it to say, QuantumScape is an intriguing story stock, but one that has a lot to prove to investors. Plug Power A second momentum stock that billionaire Philippe Laffont chose to pile into in the March-ended quarter is hydrogen fuel-cell company Plug Power (NASDAQ: PLUG). Coatue Management scooped up 4,098,713 shares of Plug through the first three months of 2025. While shares of the company are down 43% year to date, as of the closing bell on June 26, they've surged 74% since May 15. Plug Power is a company that's wagering on a "green" future. Though it's roots tie to hydrogen fuel cells found in industrial forklifts, the company's ambitious plan is to oversee electrolyzer plants and infrastructure to supply hydrogen-powered applications. Once again, the addressable market for hydrogen-powered vehicles is substantial. The ability to move away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy has been enticing enough for Plug Power to land partnerships and equity stakes. Just three weeks ago, Plug Power announced an expanded strategic collaboration with Allied Green Ammonia in Uzbekistan, which will rely on Plug's electrolyzer technology for green chemical production. Although Plug Power is further along in the development process than QuantumScape, it shares the same issue in that its operating model is unproven and it's losing money hand over fist. Despite charting a path to positive operating income in 2027 and overall profitability the following year, Plug Power lost more than $2.1 billion last year and has seen its losses balloon in successive years. What's more, since the company is burning through cash at an alarming rate as it expands its green hydrogen infrastructure, it's regularly relied on selling its own stock as a means to raise capital. This is to say that Plug Power's shareholders are commonly being diluted by share issuances designed to keep the lights on. More of these share sales are expected, which is likely to curb any near-term upside in the stock. CoreWeave The third highly volatile momentum stock that Coatue Management's billionaire investor piled into in the first quarter is artificial intelligence (AI)-data center infrastructure giant CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV). Coatue's 13F shows that Laffont picked up 14,402,999 shares of Wall Street's hottest initial public offering, whose shares are higher by 305% since the company went public on March 28. The beauty of CoreWeave's operating model is that it caters to businesses seeking out compute capacity. CoreWeave acquired 250,000 Hopper (H100) graphics processing units (GPUs) from Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) with the goal of leasing out its data center space to needy businesses. Selling its existing chips every five or six years and upgrading to newer/faster hardware should allow CoreWeave to stay relevant and be highly profitable. But to keep with the theme here, CoreWeave's operating model is still in its early stage of expansion and remains unproven. The company had to rely heavily on debt financing to purchase its GPUs, with debt-servicing costs helping to balloon its net loss. Nvidia's accelerated innovation cycle is another potential concern for CoreWeave. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is attempting to bring a new advanced chip to market each year. While this should help his company maintain its huge lead in compute capabilities, it could quickly depreciate the value of prior-generation AI-GPUs, such as Hopper. That means CoreWeave's assets may be worth far less than realized a few years from now. Furthermore, it might entice customers to pass on CoreWeave in favor of data centers with newer chips. Lastly, the jaw-dropping addressable market for AI could be constrained by historical precedent. No next-big-thing trend in more than 30 years has escaped an early innings bubble-bursting event. While AI has the look of a game-changing technology over the long run, businesses aren't anywhere close to optimizing this technology as of yet. This suggests investors have, once again, overestimated early stage utility and adoption rates. If the AI bubble were to burst, companies with premium valuations like CoreWeave would be likely to take it on the chin. Should you invest $1,000 in QuantumScape right now? Before you buy stock in QuantumScape, 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 QuantumScape 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 $713,547!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $966,931!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is1,062% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to177%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 23, 2025
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Billionaire Philippe Laffont Sells Nvidia Stock and Buys an AI Stock Up 300% in 2025
Billionaire hedge fund manager Philippe Laffont sold Nvidia and started a position in CoreWeave during the first quarter. Nvidia is not only the leader in data center GPUs, but the company also has booming artificial intelligence (AI) networking and cloud services businesses. CoreWeave operates data center infrastructure purpose-built for AI workloads, and the stock has advanced 300% since its IPO in March. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia › Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the cornerstone of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, and Wall Street has a great deal of conviction in the semiconductor company. Among 65 analysts, the median target price is $175 per share. That implies 13% upside from its current share price of $155. Yet hedge fund manager Philippe Laffont of Coatue Management sold 1.4 million shares of Nvidia in the first quarter, reducing his stake by 15%. Meanwhile, the billionaire purchased 14.4 million shares of CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV), an AI stock that has returned 300% since its IPO on March 28. Here's what investors should know about Nvidia and CoreWeave. Nvidia reported strong first-quarter financial results that beat expectations on the top and bottom lines. Sales rose 69% to $44 billion due to what CEO Jensen Huang called "incredibly strong" demand for AI infrastructure solutions. Meanwhile, non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) earnings increased 33% to $0.81 per diluted share, and would have grown more quickly had it not been for export restrictions. Looking ahead, investors have good reason to think Nvidia can maintain its momentum for several years to come. The company is not only the market leader in data center graphics processing units (GPUs), chips used to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) applications, but it also has booming networking and cloud services businesses built on growing demand for AI. That sets Nvidia up for strong sales growth through the end of the decade. Grand View Research estimates spending on AI hardware, software, and services will increase at 35% annually through 2030. Meanwhile, Wall Street expects Nvidia's adjusted earnings to grow at 40% annually through the fiscal year ending in January 2027. That makes the current valuation of 49 times adjusted earnings look fair. So, why did Philippe Laffont sell Nvidia? I think profit-taking factored into the decision. When he first bought the stock in Q3 2016, the average split-adjusted price was $1.47 per share. But the average price had risen 8,500% by Q1 2025. Regardless, it would be wrong to assume Laffont has lost confidence. Nvidia was still his eighth-largest holding at 4% of his portfolio as of March 31. I think Laffont has the right idea. Anyone sitting on monster gains can take some profits and reinvest that money elsewhere. At the same time, it makes sense to keep a modest position in Nvidia because the company has a strong presence in so many parts of the AI economy. Indeed, Angelo Zino at CFRA Research thinks Nvidia "will be the most important company to our civilization over the next decade." CoreWeave provides infrastructure and software services purpose-built for AI workloads. The company is quite adept at managing GPU clusters. An internal study shows up to 20% better performance compared to other public clouds, and independent research company SemiAnalysis recently ranked it as the best AI cloud platform on the market. CoreWeave reported tremendous first-quarter financial results. Revenue climbed 420% to $981 million, and adjusted operating income (which eliminates stock-based compensation and interest payments) increased 550% to $162 million. However, the company reported a non-GAAP net loss of $150 million because interest payments cut deeply into profits. Building and maintaining data center infrastructure is costly, especially when the servers are built for AI. But CoreWeave has a responsible borrowing strategy: It only takes on debt when contracts create a need for additional capacity, and only if those contracts more than cover the cost of the debt. Management calls it "naturally deleveraging self-amortizing debt." CoreWeave is well positioned to benefit as demand for AI infrastructure increases. The company said its revenue backlog increased 63% to $26 billion in the first quarter due in large part to a new deal with OpenAI. But its clientele also includes noteworthy technology companies likely to spend more on AI infrastructure in the years ahead, such as IBM, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. Importantly, Philippe Laffont bought CoreWeave for about $40 per share because the company held its IPO on March 28, meaning it was only public for two trading days in the first quarter. Its share price ranged from $37 to $40 during that period. CoreWeave has since quadrupled in value, and the stock now trades at 29 times sales, a very expensive valuation. For context, only three companies in the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) currently have price-to-sales ratios above 29. So, investors should be cautious. I think it's OK to buy a small position today, but I would wait for the stock to get cheaper before building a large position. 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 $704,676!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $950,198!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 175% 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 23, 2025 Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Trevor Jennewine has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends International Business Machines, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Billionaire Philippe Laffont Sells Nvidia Stock and Buys an AI Stock Up 300% in 2025 was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Billionaire predicts 'Fantastic 40' companies by 2030, one surprise pick stands out
Billionaire predicts 'Fantastic 40' companies by 2030, one surprise pick stands out originally appeared on TheStreet. Billionaire investor Philippe Laffont recently dropped a list of what he believes will be the "Fantastic 40" companies by 2030, including a surprising asset in the list. Alongside popular giants such as Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA), Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), and Meta (Nasdaq: META), Laffont placed the world's largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, too among his list of the "Fantastic 40" companies. Laffont is the founder of the hedge fund and tech-focused venture capital firm Coatue Management, which has invested in crypto companies like on-chain analytics platform Dune Analytics, blockchain data platform Chainalysis, and crypto miner Hut 8 (Nasdaq: HUT). The investor made the remarks while he appeared on CNBC's "Squawk Box" show on June billionaire has often acknowledged that he missed the Bitcoin bus earlier and is rather late to the party. He once said that he wakes up at three in the morning and goes: "What an idiot. Why didn't I invest more in Bitcoin?" While it might seem odd that Laffont put Bitcoin on par with some of the world's most valuable companies, his assessment isn't entirely off the mark. If Bitcoin — with a market cap of $2.13 trillion — were an asset, it would be the world's fifth-largest company behind Nvidia ($3.78 trillion), Microsoft ($3.69 trillion), Apple ($3 trillion), and Amazon ($2.3 trillion). Laffont thinks Bitcoin's market cap could potentially grow more than twice to over $5 trillion by 2030. Interestingly, he didn't even include Apple and Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOGL) in his "Fantastic 40" companies list. As per Kraken's price feed, Bitcoin was trading at $107,511.08 at press time, up 77% a year. Billionaire predicts 'Fantastic 40' companies by 2030, one surprise pick stands out first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 26, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 26, 2025, where it first appeared. Sign in to access your portfolio
Forbes
7 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Serious Dollar Collapse Fear Drives Huge $5 Trillion 2030 Bitcoin Price Prediction To Rival Nvidia And Microsoft
Bitcoin and crypto have rocketed higher over the last year, surging along with stock markets despite fears of a 'Doomsday' scenario for the markets and the bitcoin price. Front-run Donald Trump, the White House and Wall Street by subscribing now to Forbes' CryptoAsset & Blockchain Advisor where you can "uncover blockchain blockbusters poised for 1,000% plus gains!" The bitcoin price has soared back toward its all-time high of $112,000 per bitcoin, up around 50% from its April lows and helped by U.S. president Donald Trump surprising traders with a 'massive' crypto prediction. Now, as the crypto market braces for a Congress game-changer predicted to 'unleash' trillions, a legendary billionaire has said he expects global 'de-dollarization" to catapult the bitcoin price to a $5 trillion market capitalization by 2030—putting it alongside technology giants Nvidia and Microsoft. Sign up now for the free CryptoCodex—A daily five-minute newsletter for traders, investors and the crypto-curious that will get you up to date and keep you ahead of the bitcoin and crypto market bull run The "de-dollarisation of the world [and] the end of U.S. exceptionalism" has been named as the ... More driving force behind a huge $5 trillion bitcoin price prediction. Philippe Laffont, the billionaire founder of hedge fund Coatue Management, has added bitcoin to his Fantastic 40 list, a collection of investments he thinks will be the biggest winners over the next five years. Laffont's list, which features Microsoft, Nvidia, bitcoin, Amazon and Meta as the top five and doesn't include tech giants Apple or Google at all, can be seen in full here. "I wake up every day at three in the morning and I'm like, 'why am I such an idiot? What have I been waiting for, not being involved in it?' And it just goes up and up," Laffont told CNBC, adding that, 'sometimes you have to change your mind and you have to say, well, 'I made a mistake.'' According to Laffont, who claims he hasn't bought bitcoin yet, its price could more than double to give bitcoin a market capitalization of over $5 trillion by 2030, with Microsoft forecast to soar to $5.7 trillion and Nvidia to $5.6 trillion. "I always thought, bitcoin's amazing, but it's double or triple the volatility of the Nasdaq," Laffont said. "It seems its volatility as an asset class is coming down." Laffont pointed to the gold's $22 trillion market cap as justification for bitcoin's performance over the next few years, along with "the de-dollarisation of the world [and] the end of U.S. exceptionalism."
AU Financial Review
7 days ago
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Coatue doubled its money on Melio. Here's how to learn from its success
When the first iPhone was released in June 2007, Belgian-born French fund manager Philippe Laffont and his team gathered in the boardroom of Coatue Management's New York offices and got out their pocket knives. They took the phone's hardware apart, made investments in all the suppliers of its components, and shorted any business that would face competitive pressure – including Nokia and Blackberry.
