Ackman's $2.09B Microsoft Bet and Berkshire's 12 Exits

This edition covers filings disclosed May 15–19, 2026 — the post-deadline rush following the May 15 quarterly 13F cutoff. Over 4 trading days, every major fund landed their Q1 data simultaneously, producing an unusually dense cluster of institutional disclosures to parse before today's open.

Flash summary

Fund	AUM (approx.)	Biggest buy	Biggest sell/exit
Berkshire Hathaway	$263.1B	GOOGL (+224%, ~$16B)	12 full exits incl. V, MA, UNH, AMZN
Pershing Square	$13.7B	MSFT new $2.09B	GOOG/GOOGL (−95%), HLT exit
Tiger Global	$78B	INTC new $180M	MSFT −54%, TTWO −66%
Third Point	$2.08B	META new, 5 semi names	MSFT exit, NVDA −94%, rails −90%+
Citadel	$63.9B	TSM new ~$1.4B	NFLX exit ~$643M
Appaloosa	~$5.9B	AMZN +98% to #1 holding	MSFT −82%, AAL exit
Bridgewater	$22.4B	MRVL, NVDA, TSMC new	CRM exit, PYPL trimmed ~3M shares
Point72	$78.5B	NVDA +207% to 6.4M shares	—
Druckenmiller/Duquesne	$3.06B	DOCU, TSM new	GOOGL exit (all ~385K shares)
Soros Fund	$25B	NVDA +61%, BRK.B new $63.9M	AMZN −18%, MSFT −19%

Berkshire's first post-Buffett quarter: 12 exits and a return to airlines

Greg Abel's first complete quarter as CEO produced the most sweeping portfolio change at Berkshire Hathaway (managed assets ~$263.1B, 29 positions) in years, with 12 full exits and a first airline buy since Berkshire dumped all carrier stocks in Q2 2020. 1

The exit list spans Visa (V), Mastercard (MA), UnitedHealth (UNH), Domino's Pizza (DPZ), Aon (AON), Pool Corp (POOL), Amazon (AMZN), Heico (HEI), Liberty Formula One (FWONK), Charter (CHTR), Lamar Advertising (LAMR), and Allegion (ALLE). 1 CNBC's analysis notes that nearly every name on this list was managed by Todd Combs, who left Berkshire in December 2025 to join JPMorgan — framing most of these exits as a straightforward unwinding of Combs' book rather than active negative bets by Abel. 2

On the buy side, Alphabet (GOOGL) stands out: Class A shares went from 17.6M to 54.2M, and Berkshire added $1.03B in Class C (GOOG), lifting total Alphabet exposure to roughly $16–17B — now the seventh-largest position. 3 CNBC attributes this almost certainly to Abel rather than Combs. New additions also include Delta Air Lines (DAL) — 39.8M shares, ~$2.65B at quarter-end — and a small Macy's (M) position worth roughly $59M. 1 Constellation Brands (STZ) was trimmed 95%, Chevron (CVX) shed 35% (~$8B sold). Cash reserves hit a record $380.2B. 3

The top three holdings — Apple (AAPL), American Express (AXP), Coca-Cola (KO) — were untouched. Apple remains the largest disclosed equity position.

Ackman's $2.09B Microsoft bet vs. everyone else selling

The most debated move of this filing window: Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management (total portfolio $13.7B, 11 positions) initiated a $2.09B Microsoft (MSFT) new position — 5.65M shares at approximately 21x forward earnings, now 15.26% of the portfolio. 4

Ackman stated on X that the purchase was driven by his view that two concerns had driven down the stock price unjustifiably: competitive pressure on Microsoft 365 from AI-lab offerings (specifically naming Anthropic's Claude Cowork) and durability questions around Azure growth tied to Microsoft's evolving OpenAI relationship. He began accumulating in February 2026 and called the position "highly compelling" at current valuations. 5

The consensus among every other tracked fund ran the opposite direction:

Third Point (Dan Loeb): exited MSFT entirely 6
Appaloosa (David Tepper): cut MSFT by 82% 3
Renaissance Technologies: reduced by ~$329M 7

To fund the MSFT purchase, Ackman slashed Alphabet (GOOG) by 94.94% and GOOGL by 95.23%, exited Hilton Worldwide (HLT), and trimmed Amazon (+19% net), Uber, Meta, and Brookfield marginally. 4

Tiger Global's $180M Intel call and the semiconductor rotation

Chase Coleman's Tiger Global (~$78B AUM, top 10 positions = ~70% of portfolio) opened a $180M Intel (INTC) position — 1.638M shares — in Q1, making it the most discussed single new bet of the filing window. 8 INTC is up 195% year-to-date and 404% year-over-year as of filing. Intel has delivered six consecutive quarterly revenue beats; Q1 2026 came in at $13.6B revenue (+7% YoY) with non-GAAP EPS of $0.29 against a $0.01 consensus. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has argued that AI workloads are shifting from training to inference and agentic applications, which he says "significantly increases the need for Intel's CPUs and wafer and advanced packaging offerings." 8

Tiger Global also added TSMC (+49%), Applied Materials (AMAT, +85%), and Broadcom (AVGO, +25%) while halving Spotify (SPOT bought double the prior quarter) and entering MercadoLibre (MELI). The simultaneous Microsoft cut of 54% signals a sector rotation: out of software, into hardware and infrastructure. 8

Third Point's semiconductor sweep corroborates the theme: Dan Loeb opened fresh positions in KLA Corp (KLAC), Lam Research (LRCX), ASML Holding (ASML), and Broadcom (AVGO) while exiting MSFT and slashing NVDA 94% and TSM 35%. 9 Goldman Sachs bought 3.64M Micron (MU) shares valued at over $1.2B in Q1, a separate data point that arrived alongside the 13F disclosures. 10

A counterpoint worth tracking: Leopold Aschenbrenner's Situational Awareness Partners filed a $3.86B long book in AI infrastructure names (SMH ETF $2.04B, NVDA $1.57B, ORCL $1.07B, AVGO $1.01B, AMD $969M) alongside $8.45B notional put options against semiconductors — SMH, NVDA, ORCL, AVGO, AMD, MU, TSM, ASML, INTC, and GLW. The long-plus-put structure reads less as an outright bear bet than as a hedge against a drawdown while maintaining upside participation. Aschenbrenner simultaneously exited a prior $747M INTC long position entirely. 11

Amazon 13F infographic — billionaire fund holdings in Q1 2026

Image from: Wall Street Billionaires Make Amazon Their Top AI Trade

Amazon: the top consensus long

Amazon (AMZN) appeared in the top-10 holdings of 5 of the 10 funds tracked this round, making it the broadest single consensus overweight. 10

Appaloosa (Tepper): +98% to become the fund's largest holding at 15.16% of portfolio (~$900M) 12
Pershing Square (Ackman): +19%, added 1.84M shares 4
Bridgewater: increased alongside MRVL and NVDA as part of an AI hardware pivot 13
Tiger Global, Baupost (Seth Klarman): both maintain AMZN in top US holdings 10

The outlier: Berkshire fully exited Amazon. A Reddit quantitative analysis of Berkshire's Q1 holdings scored Amazon at 40/100 on a Buffett-style model — 1% FCF margin, zero of four fair-value models above current price — characterizing it as "a straightforward exit." 7 The bull thesis from BeInCrypto and Yahoo Finance centers on AWS cloud demand tied to AI infrastructure buildouts and accelerating digital ad revenue. 10

Rapid-fire: the rest of the filing window

Fund	Notable moves	Source precision
Third Point ($2.08B)	Exited MSFT, PCG, CMG, CEG, BABA, SPOT, TMO; slashed NVDA −94% (295K→190K shares) and rails −90%+; opened META 90K, GOOGL 175K, Hut 8 (HUT) 870K, KLAC/LRCX/ASML/AVGO. Portfolio down ~71%. Returned 12.39% vs. S&P 25.12%.	6
Citadel ($63.9B, 3,213 positions)	New TSMC ~$1.4B; added MU +$682M, META +$518M; exited NFLX ~$643M; trimmed NVDA 2.9M shares, AMZN 6M shares. Tesla and Meta positions unchanged. Data from social media secondary source — key figures pending primary verification.	14
Appaloosa (~$5.9B)	AMZN +98% → #1 holding; UBER +242%; SanDisk (SNDK) new (3%); exited AAL entirely; MSFT −82%, BABA −33%, KWEB −78%	12
Bridgewater ($22.4B, 993 positions)	Exited Salesforce (CRM); cut PayPal (PYPL) ~3M shares; added MRVL, NVDA, AMZN; opened TSMC new. Software → AI hardware rotation.	13
Point72 ($78.5B)	NVDA +207%, from 2.09M to 6.42M shares (~$1.01B). Full holdings detail pending.	10
Druckenmiller/Duquesne ($3.06B)	Portfolio −17.7% QoQ; exited all GOOGL; new buys: DOCU, TSM, Flutter, Insmed; sold out of STX, COHR, SKX, UAL. 55.6% turnover.	15
Soros Fund ($25B)	New: BRK.B 133K shares (~$63.9M), J&J, Mastercard; NVDA +61% to 1.07M shares; AAPL +20%. Cut AMZN −18%, GOOGL −10%, MSFT −19%.	16
Lone Pine Capital	Full exits: AVGO, MSFT, DASH, AMZN; slashed TSM −54%, KKR −96%; opened TER, GLW, MTZ new. Mega-cap tech liquidation.	12
Maverick Capital	Exited UNP; cut PM −74%, MSFT −37%, TSM −25%; opened LIN, ABT, DHR, RGEN; boosted NU +92%	12
Viking Global	Exited AMD, DKNG, ROST; opened AAPL (2.55%), FDX, META (1.70%), ATI; boosted Visa +59%, Carvana +162%	12
Greenlight Capital	Exited KD, WBD; opened VSNT, CROX, REZI, SLM; SYNNEX (SNX) +749%, Peloton (PTON) +4,004%	12
Elliott Management	$20.1B, 33 positions; top holdings Triple Flag Precious Metals (~$4.6B, ~23%) and Phillips 66 (~$3.5B, ~17%). Data from Reddit r/edgar_news snippet — unverified; primary source not confirmed.	17

Activist & insider corner

Zimmer Partners → James River Group (JRVR): Zimmer Partners (Stuart J. Zimmer) filed a Schedule 13D on May 15, converting from passive 13G status to activist standing. 18 The 4,623,685-share stake (10% of JRVR, cost basis ~$22.4M) comes with a stated agenda: cut the dividend, reduce debt, and explore strategic alternatives. JRVR rose ~3% on the disclosure. Zimmer is now the third-largest JRVR shareholder. 19

Standard Investments → Ashland (ASH): Standard Investments filed a 13D/A amendment on May 18, lifting its Ashland stake to 4,095,001 shares (8.943% of the float). 20 Combined with a remaining total-return swap, their economic exposure reaches ~9.88%. Total cost basis: $212.9M. The filing states they believe Ashland shares "represent an attractive investment opportunity." 20 ASH is down ~25% year-to-date.

Insider buys and sells:

SHAK: CEO Rob Lynch bought 5,000 shares on May 15 via open-market purchase (Form 4, transaction code P), estimated at ~$300K at ~$60/share. Open-market CEO buys are among the strongest insider confidence signals. 21
TSLA: CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 3,000 shares on May 18, ~$1.35M at ~$450/share. The largest insider sale by dollar value in this window. 22

The cross-fund Alphabet thesis splits cleanly along time horizon: Berkshire and Druckenmiller exited (or heavily trimmed); Third Point, Bridgewater, and Soros trimmed modestly; meanwhile, Berkshire's own GOOGL tripling under Abel is the largest dollar-value Alphabet accumulation on record for the fund. Watch whether Q2 filings show further Berkshire Alphabet builds or a pause — that will reveal whether this is a conviction position or an opportunistic entry.

Cover image: Wall Street Billionaires Make Amazon Their Top AI Trade