Amazon: A Quiet Accumulation

One follows the money, they say. A rather vulgar phrase, perhaps, but not entirely without merit. It suggests a certain… practicality. And lately, a certain amount of capital has been drifting, almost imperceptibly, toward Amazon. Not a rush, mind you. More like a slow seepage.

Pershing Square, under Mr. Ackman’s direction, acquired 3.7 million shares. Egerton Capital, a further 1.8 million. The latter, I understand, now holds a substantial portion of its portfolio in the company. Baupost Group, ever cautious, added a little over 2.1 million. A respectable sum, certainly, though one wonders if they, too, are simply delaying the inevitable reckoning.

But it is Mr. Griffin’s Citadel that truly catches the eye. $2.5 billion worth of shares in a single quarter. A considerable wager. One begins to suspect that they see something beyond the quarterly reports and optimistic press releases. Perhaps they understand the quiet engine driving this accumulation: Amazon Web Services. The cloud, of course. And the cloud, increasingly, is the home of artificial intelligence. A rather abstract notion, artificial intelligence. Yet, it demands data centers. And data centers, it seems, require Amazon.

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The stock has been…uninspired, shall we say, for nearly a year. A period of flat performance. Perhaps that is why these purchases are occurring now. A moment of relative calm before the storm. Or perhaps it is simply a matter of finding value where others see only stagnation. A curious thing, value. It rarely announces itself with fanfare.

And for the smaller investor, the opportunity remains. To acquire shares at a price lower than that paid by these seasoned managers. A fleeting advantage, no doubt. The market has a way of correcting such imbalances. But for a moment, it exists. A small window of possibility. One wonders, of course, if it will truly amount to anything. The future, as always, is uncertain. The cloud drifts on, indifferent to our calculations. And life, inevitably, goes on.

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2026-02-25 02:42