By Joel South
Publication Date: 2026-08-13 12:00:00
David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management nearly doubled its Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) stake in the first quarter of 2026, adding roughly 2.14 million shares to bring the total to about 4.3 million, a position worth approximately $900 million and disclosed in a 13F filed May 15. That move makes Amazon Tepper’s single largest holding at roughly 15% of the $5.93 billion portfolio, up from third place at 7% in Q4 2025. The reflexive guess for a billionaire’s top artificial intelligence bet is NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA). Tepper went a different direction.
What Tepper Bought, and Why It Matters
Tepper concentrated capital into Amazon during a quarter when sentiment around hyperscaler CapEx was deteriorating. Amazon traded at $208.27 on March 31, 2026, weighed down by investor anxiety about the scale of AI infrastructure spending. Tepper used that drawdown to build size. The position is now up more than 29% from the March 31 reference, with shares at $268.78 on Aug. 12. He is ahead, but modestly, and the recent pullback shows the thesis is still being contested.
The contrarian signal is sharper than the price gain suggests. While Tepper accumulated, Amazon insiders unloaded. Jeff Bezos disposed of 1,033,597 shares on May 1, then another 220,200 shares on May 4 at $275. CEO Andy Jassy, Stores chief Doug Herrington, and AWS chief Matt Garman all sold into the May rally. Berkshire Hathaway, under Greg Abel, fully exited Amazon the same quarter Tepper doubled…
