Tepper’s AI Gambit: Nvidia Exit, Broadcom Bet

What is this quarterly ritual of earnings season but a gilded carnival where accountants juggle numbers on flaming poles? The crowd roars as revenue figures cartwheel and profit margins perform their death-defying splits. Yet amid this circus, the true alchemists of value lurk in the shadows, poring over Form 13Fs like monks deciphering ancient scrolls. These filings, those bureaucratic relics of the SEC, reveal not just trades but the twitching pulse of Wall Street’s collective madness.

Consider the current grotesque parade: artificial intelligence, that eight-legged spider spinning its web across every industry. Investors, like moths to a flame, flock to its gilded labyrinth, blind to the cobwebs of overvaluation. Yet not all are entranced. David Tepper, that grizzled bear of Appaloosa, has been selling shares of AI’s most anointed acolytes-Nvidia, AMD, TSMC-as if exorcising demons from his portfolio. Meanwhile, he piles into Broadcom, that unassuming octopus with tentacles in a dozen industries, as though it were the last remaining lighthouse in a storm of delusion.

Between April 2024 and March 2025, Tepper’s team executed a dance of divestment:

Nvidia: 4,120,000 shares sold (93% reduction, post-10-for-1 split), its once-mighty GPUs now reduced to charred embers in his ledger.
TSMC: 230,000 shares sold (46% reduction), its chip foundries now ghost towns in his imagination.
AMD: 1,630,000 shares sold (complete exit), its Instinct chips discarded like yesterday’s riddles.

These companies, you see, are not mere corporations but gilded beasts feeding on the blood of speculation. Nvidia’s GPUs, those silicon oracles of AI, have become as essential to data centers as air to a goldfish. AMD’s chips, like a pretender prince, claw for relevance. TSMC, the grand vizier of chip fabrication, expands its wafer kingdoms with the zeal of a 17th-century tsar. Yet Tepper, that old fox, sees not empires but overgrown toadstools, their caps ready to burst under the weight of their own hubris.

Why sell? Ah, the question! Is it profit-taking, that sly fox’s trick? Or does Tepper sense the air growing thin, like a man who leaves a room moments before the roof collapses? The price-to-sales ratio of Nvidia, at 31, reeks of a balloon inflated by hot air and hubris. Valuation, that fickle mistress, whispers to Tepper of impending winters. For every AI bubble that bursts, there are shareholders left shivering in the snow, clutching shares that have turned to ice.

And yet, amid this carnage, Broadcom blooms. Tepper added 130,000 shares of this trillion-dollar colossus, a company that straddles the line between pragmatism and sorcery. While Nvidia and AMD cling to their GPU thrones, Broadcom weaves its magic in networking solutions-those invisible threads that connect AI’s fractured kingdom. Its custom chips, whispered to be coveted by hyperscalers, promise a future where data flows like honey, not molasses.

But Broadcom is no one-trick pony. It is a chameleon, shifting hues between wireless chips for smartphones, cybersecurity fortresses, and automotive sensors. Should the AI bubble pop, it will not drown but paddle to safety, its many limbs propelling it through the wreckage. Tepper, ever the realist, sees this resilience as a fortress against the whims of fashion.

And so, the investor’s dilemma: to chase the glittering mirage of AI or bet on the stolid, multi-hatted merchant who sells you not just a potion but a whole apothecary. Tepper’s choice is clear. He trades the fragile glass of speculative hype for the iron of diversification. For in the end, the market is not a stage for heroes but a graveyard for the overconfident. And the value investor, that sardonic jester, laughs last.

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2025-08-07 10:12

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