①Following SoftBank Group’s Masayoshi Son, Japan’s richest person, another billionaire has exited his position in NVIDIA, a core leader in the AI sector; ②Weekend filings revealed that billionaire Peter Thiel sold all of his shares in NVIDIA. ③Thiel’s move comes amid growing market concerns about the tech valuation bubble fueled by artificial intelligence.
Cailian Press report on November 17 (Editor: Bian Chun) Following SoftBank Group’s Masayoshi Son, Japan’s richest person, another billionaire has exited his position in NVIDIA, a core leader in the AI sector.
Filings disclosed over the weekend showed that billionaire Peter Thiel had sold all of his shares in NVIDIA.
Thiel, a co-founder of fintech giant PayPal and defense AI company Palantir, has also achieved remarkable success in investment. He not only founded well-known investment funds such as Founders Fund but also made precise bets on numerous star enterprises, including an early investment in Facebook that yielded substantial returns, earning him the title of ‘the godfather of Silicon Valley venture capital.’
The 13F filing submitted by Thiel Macro Fund, founded by Thiel, showed that he sold approximately 537,742 shares of NVIDIA (nearly 40% of his portfolio) between July and September. As of September 30, he no longer held any shares of NVIDIA.
Estimates show that based on NVIDIA’s average share price during July to September, the value of this share sale was close to $100 million.
The filings also revealed that Thiel reduced his Tesla holdings from 272,613 shares to 65,000 shares, while purchasing 79,181 shares of Apple and 49,000 shares of Microsoft respectively.
Thiel also sold all of his shares in energy producer Vistra Energy Corp, totaling 208,747 shares.
Thiel’s actions come amid growing market concerns about the tech valuation bubble driven by artificial intelligence.
Investors are concerned about how OpenAI, the AI giant, plans to fulfill its spending commitments exceeding $1 trillion, and the potential impact on chipmakers like NVIDIA, which serve as major suppliers. NVIDIA’s investment in OpenAI has also raised concerns about circular financing.
Just a week before Peter Thiel disclosed the liquidation of his NVIDIA shares, SoftBank Group, a well-known Japanese technology investment firm, revealed that it had divested all its NVIDIA shares, cashing out $5.8 billion.
Last Friday, Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, disclosed that it reduced its stake in NVIDIA by nearly 4.72 million shares during the third quarter. By the end of the third quarter, Bridgewater held 2.51 million NVIDIA shares, marking a 65.3% decrease from 7.23 million shares at the end of the second quarter.
Earlier this month, Michael Burry, an investor known for predicting the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, disclosed a substantial short position in NVIDIA.
The reasons behind Peter Thiel’s decision to liquidate his NVIDIA holdings remain unclear.
Earlier this year, Thiel warned that NVIDIA was overvalued and drew parallels between the surge in tech stock valuations and the dot-com bubble burst of 1999-2000. He cautioned that the hype cycle surrounding artificial intelligence significantly outpaced its tangible economic benefits.
Despite a recent notable correction in its share price, NVIDIA remains the world’s most valuable company, with its market capitalization recently surpassing $5 trillion.
