Altimeter
Capital
Chair
and
CEO
Brad
Gerstner said
he
has
taken
some
chips
off
the
table
after
this
year’s
strong
run
in
technology
stocks,
but
he
is
still
bullish
on
the
names
that
are
reaccelerating
because
of
artificial
intelligence.
“All
of
these
stocks
are
up
a
lot
just
to
start
this
year
and
the
backdrop
has
gotten
a
little
worse,”
Gerstner
said
on
CNBC’s
”
Halftime
Report
”
on
Tuesday.
“If
you
want
to
take
a
little
bit
off
the
table
today,
just
reflecting
on
the
fact
that
you’ve
achieved
a
year’s
worth
of
returns
in
the
first
few
months
of
the
year,
I
think
that
makes
sense.”
The
widely
followed
investor
revealed
that
he
has
taken
down
his
own
exposure
by
10
percentage
points
to
20
percentage
points
in
his
hedge
fund
and
the
long-only
fund
by
both
adding
shorts
and
reducing
some
of
the
overall
position
sizes.
“People
think
that
they’re
always
100%
invested.
That’s
not
the
case
when
the
market
is
up
this
much
to
start
the
year
when
the
backdrop
is
this
volatile.
I
think
it
makes
sense
to
trim
a
little
and
so
that’s
what
we’ve
done
across
our
portfolios,”
he
said.
At
the
end
of
2023,
Altimeter’s
top
five
holdings
were
Snowflake
,
Meta
,
Uber,
Microsoft
and
Nvidia
.
Meta
has
climbed
more
than
32%
in
2024,
while
Nvidia
is
up
another
84%
this
year.
Billionaire
investor
Stanley
Druckenmiller
also
said
he
slashed
his
big
bet
in
chipmaker
Nvidia
earlier
this
year,
adding
that
the
swift
AI
boom
could
be
overhyped
in
the
short
run.
Gerstner
noted
that
the
macro
environment
has
turned
less
ideal
for
investors.
First,
the
Federal
Reserve
is
now
expected
to
continue
to
hold
off
on
cutting
rates
to
fight
stubborn
inflation.
Also,
corporate
tax
rates
might
go
up
as
the
reduction
from
2017
is
set
to
expire,
Gerstner
said.
“We
started
the
year
expecting
six
rate
cuts.
Now
we’re
down
to
maybe
zero
rate
cuts,”
he
said.
“We’ve
got
an
election
coming
up
and
the
potential
that
the
corporate
tax
rate
cuts
from
2017
…
will
expire
at
the
end
of
2025
unless
extended,
and
those
represent
a
meaningful
part
of
the
growth
in
the
S
&
P
500.”
While
trimming
his
positions
this
year,
Gerstner,
a
Harvard
Business
School
graduate,
clarified
that
he
wants
to
invest
in
some
of
his
top
holdings
in
the
long
run.
“We
want
to
be
in
the
names
like
Nvidia
that
are
reaccelerating,
in
the
names
like
Amazon
and
Google
and
Microsoft
and
Snowflake
that
we
believe
are
reaccelerating.
It’s
only
with
that
reacceleration
…
the
numbers
are
going
up
for
those
companies,
that
the
stocks
are
going
to
work,”
he
said.
