Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller bought into a few stocks tied to artificial intelligence last quarter, while piling into a handful of other names in the tech sector, according to a new regulatory filing. The legendary investor, who now runs Duquesne Family Office, bought $210 million in Microsoft, making it his third-largest holding. Meanwhile, he increased his Nvidia holdings significantly, boosting the chip maker to his family office’s second-largest bet. Druckenmiller said last week these two bets were his way of getting exposure to the booming AI space. He thinks that AI could be a fruitful opportunity for investors, especially when the economy comes out of what he thinks is an imminent downturn. “I actually think AI is very, very real and could be every bit as impactful as the internet literally going forward,” Druckenmiller said at the Sohn Investment Conference last week. Nvidia, which makes chips needed for AI computing tasks, has jumped more than 96% this year after having a banner first quarter, its biggest quarterly gain since 2001. Microsoft has rallied 30% in 2023. The investor also built a sizable stake in Alphabet, another AI play, making it one of his top 10 holdings. Alphabet’s Google announced last week it would bring AI features to its signature search product to turn complex queries into simple answers by combining results from multiple sources. Druckenmiller also bought major chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor last quarter. The company also drew interest from Tiger Global Management and Coatue Management, who took new stakes at the same time. Amazon was another new bet for Druckenmiller, who built an $84 million stake at the end of March. Druckenmiller once managed George Soros’ Quantum Fund and shot to fame after helping make a $10 billion bet against the British pound in 1992. He later oversaw $12 billion as president of Duquesne Capital Management before closing his firm in 2010.
