Title: Wall Street's Top Stocks in Q2 — The AI trade broadened beyond NVIDIA Show: App Economy Insights (How They Make Money) Author: App Economy Insights (Bertrand) Date: 2026-08-18 URL: https://www.appeconomyinsights.com/p/wall-streets-top-stocks-in-q2-70e Note: Premium/paid Substack post, saved verbatim for personal study. Prose article — no (mm:ss) timestamps. Quarterly 13F round-up covering the author's curated list of 20 top-performing funds (portfolios as of June 30, 2026). Body reproduced as published (subscription-tier boilerplate + share/like chrome omitted; chart/table images are described in brackets where they carried the data). Disclosure at the end lists the author's App Economy Portfolio holdings — a disclosure, not a stance.
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Welcome to the Premium edition of How They Make Money.
It's 13F season again!
Every quarter, funds managing over $100 million must disclose their portfolios, offering a rare glimpse into the minds of elite investors. The latest 13F filings capture portfolios as of June 30.
In Q2, the AI trade broadened beyond NVIDIA.
The biggest funds kept their core exposure to hyperscalers and leading chipmakers, but new money increasingly moved toward the rest of the AI supply chain. Taiwan Semiconductor, memory, storage, semiconductor equipment, and newer infrastructure names like Cerebras and Nebius featured prominently among top buys.
The theme also continued to spread into the physical economy. Power, industrials, materials, and infrastructure companies continued to attract capital as investors sought ways to participate in the massive data center buildout beyond GPUs.
Beyond AI, some of the quarter's most interesting bets came from places few investors would expect.
Against that backdrop, super investors had to choose between doubling down on AI infrastructure, revisiting beaten-down growth stocks, or sticking with durable compounders.
Today at a glance: Hedge funds' strategies · Top buys and top holdings in Q2 · Fund picks that were not on your bingo card · Implications for individual investors
Before we dive into 13Fs, a quick reminder: blindly copying hedge fund trades is a terrible strategy.
Investing is like shooting 3-pointers. Even Steph Curry, the greatest shooter ever, misses more than half the time. There are no guaranteed outcomes, even for the pros.
Your behavior matters more than your portfolio. As Peter Lynch said, "Know what you own and why you own it."
Conviction is what helps you hold through volatility. And conviction comes from doing your own work, not borrowing someone else's.
As Ian Cassel puts it: "You can borrow someone else's stock ideas but you can't borrow their conviction. [...] Do the work so you know when to sell. Do the work so you can hold. Do the work so you can stand alone."
Some limitations of 13F filings: Omit short positions and cash reserves. Offer a partial view, leaving out smaller funds. Exclude non-US equities, bonds, and commodities. Can be dated, given their submission 45 days after the quarter.
1. Hedge funds' strategies
Hedge funds are financial powerhouses known for flexible, aggressive strategies designed to beat the market. Here's what typically shapes their moves: Market conditions · Sector trends · Fundamentals · Macro factors · Quant models · Risk management · Investor sentiment.
Still, it doesn't always work out. The Global X Guru ETF (GURU), designed to track top hedge fund holdings, has underperformed the S&P 500 since its inception in 2012. And that comparison still leaves out the classic hedge fund fee drag. [Chart — Source: Fiscal.ai]
And those fees matter. The classic "2 and 20" model (2% of assets + 20% of gains) can significantly reduce returns. It's no wonder that many individual investors are opting for simpler, lower-cost strategies.
2. Top holdings and top buys in Q2
Our partners at Fiscal.ai gather the data on Super Investors and visualize their portfolio for you.
In early 2020, just before the COVID market turmoil, I curated a list of 20 top-performing hedge funds using TipRanks data. The selection focused on alpha relative to the S&P 500, and I also included a few funds frequently featured in my social feeds and podcast rotation. It's not perfect, but it remains a solid directional filter.
Top 5 holdings end of June 2026: [table image]
The 10 stocks below represent nearly half of the top holdings listed: AI infrastructure: TSM, NVDA, ASML, AMAT, MU. Mega-cap platforms: AMZN, GOOG, META. New IPOs: SPCX, CBRS.
Amazon and Taiwan Semiconductor are now tied as the most widely held stocks, appearing among the top five holdings of 9 of the 20 funds. Alphabet follows with eight, while NVIDIA appears in five. Microsoft, once a fixture on this list, appeared only once at the end of June after falling more than 20% YTD.
Apple and Tesla were entirely absent from the top-five holdings.
The holdings themselves don't change dramatically from quarter to quarter, so let's turn to the more actionable insights with the new movements in Q2.
Top 5 buys in Q2: [table image]
Here are some of the recurring themes:
SpaceX made its 13F debut. SPCX appeared among the top new positions of five funds, but this is a special case. Several were already private-market investors before the June IPO, so the filings largely reveal existing SpaceX exposure becoming publicly reportable, rather than necessarily new Q2 buying.
AI infrastructure broadened beyond NVIDIA. TSM and Cerebras appeared in four funds, while AMAT, MU, AMD appeared three times each. Intel, Astera Labs, Qualcomm, Nebius, and CoreWeave also made appearances. NVDA itself was a top buy for only one fund.
Memory and storage moved into focus. MU was a top-five buy for Coatue, Altimeter, and Sands, while STX appeared for Lone Pine, Sands, and Tiger. As AI infrastructure scales, funds are increasingly looking beyond compute to the components that feed and store all that data.
The physical buildout remained investable. GE, CRS, LIN, BE, CEG, EQT, UNP, CRH, GEV, and BKR all made the list. The AI capex cycle continues to spill into power, industrials, materials, and infrastructure.
Growth stayed selective outside AI. APP, UBER, MELI, RDDT, DASH, NFLX, SNOW, TWLO, and NOW all attracted buyers. This still looks more like stock picking than a broad rush back into software.
A quick note on top sells: I typically skip them. Not because they aren't interesting, but because they can be misleading. Hedge funds often trim high-conviction positions to manage risk or rebalance. So a "top sell" doesn't always mean a bearish turn.
A few 13F curveballs outside the core list
Bill Ackman (Pershing Square): Ackman went shopping. Pershing added six new positions in NFLX, V, MA, SPGI, ICE, and ALC, its biggest portfolio overhaul in years. Most notable is Netflix, which Ackman famously exited in 2022 at a roughly $400 million loss. He also finished exiting GOOGL, completing the rotation that started last quarter.
Stanley Druckenmiller (Duquesne): Druckenmiller almost reversed last quarter's mega-cap retreat. After nearly eliminating AMZN and completely exiting GOOGL in Q1, he rebuilt Amazon to 542,000 shares and reopened Alphabet with 336,000 shares. Meanwhile, he exited AVGO, INTC, and MU, showing just how quickly his positioning can change.
Berkshire Hathaway: Berkshire finally put its cash to work, becoming a net buyer of stocks for the first time in 14 quarters. It boosted GOOG/L by 83%, making Alphabet its third-largest stock holding behind Apple and American Express. Berkshire also added to DAL and LEN, opened a small DHI position, and exited STZ.
3. Fund picks that were not on your bingo card
Some of the most interesting Q2 moves came from emerging AI winners and a few picks that were decidedly not on your bingo card.
Cerebras: The NVIDIA alternative Cerebras (CBRS) was Altimeter and Tiger's #1 new 13F position, while Coatue and Atreides also disclosed large stakes. All four were already private-market investors before its May IPO. Cerebras builds wafer-scale AI systems optimized for inference, offering a differentiated bet on AI compute beyond traditional GPUs. (Read more in our S-1 breakdown: "Cerebras: Demand Is Not the Problem", Jun 30.)
Astera Labs: The connectivity bottleneck Light Street made Astera Labs (ALAB) its #1 buy, while Whale Rock ranked it #2. Astera sells connectivity chips that move data between GPUs, CPUs, memory, and networking. As AI clusters become larger and more complex, connectivity is becoming an increasingly important bottleneck.
Ferrari: Viking buys scarcity Viking made Ferrari (RACE) its #1 buy. Ferrari behaves more like a luxury brand than an automaker, using constrained supply, personalization, and pricing power to generate exceptional margins. Viking may be betting that this scarcity-driven model can keep compounding regardless of broader pressure in the auto industry.
Kilroy Realty: Betting on offices Route One made Kilroy Realty (KRC) its #1 buy. Kilroy owns premium office properties concentrated in West Coast technology markets. The contrarian thesis is that improving tech and AI leasing could help fill still-elevated vacancies, creating meaningful upside if the office recovery continues.
4. Implications for individual investors
Tracking hedge fund activity can be insightful, but it comes with caveats. Here's what to keep in mind: Diversify: Hedge funds spread risk across sectors and regions. You should, too. Don't hinge your portfolio on a single big idea. Think long term: Top funds look years ahead. They don't chase headlines. They focus on where the world is going, not where it's been. Do your homework: Yes, hedge funds have research teams. But that doesn't excuse you from digging in. Read. Analyze. Stay curious. Watch the fees: Fees erode returns. As Jack Bogle said, "In investing, you get what you don't pay for." Know what you're being charged. Use 13Fs as a starting point: These filings are dated snapshots, not real-time signals. But they're great for surfacing ideas and framing your research.
Watching hedge funds can be instructive, but your investment journey is personal. Make informed decisions that suit your goals and risk appetite.
Bottom line
Successful investing isn't about copying the smart money. It's about knowing why you're invested in the first place, with your unique goals and risk profile. While most of us won't have the vast resources of a hedge fund, we possess something just as potent: The ability to invest with patience and a long-term vision. Investing isn't about blindly following the herd. It's about carving your own path, armed with knowledge, patience, and a relentless pursuit of growth and learning.
Disclosure: I own AAPL, AMD, AMZN, APP, ASML, AVGO, CPNG, CRM, GLBE, GOOG, INTU, IOT, MELI, META, MSFT, MU, NFLX, NOW, NU, NVDA, PANW, SHOP, TSM, UBER, and V in App Economy Portfolio.