Coatue’s Philippe Laffont trimmed his Tesla holdings while expanding his bet on Alibaba, signaling shifting confidence in global tech and artificial intelligence trends.
Billionaire investor Philippe Laffont is recalibrating his tech portfolio, cutting his exposure to Tesla while significantly increasing his commitment to one of China’s most influential technology companies. The latest quarterly disclosures from Coatue Management show a sharp shift in strategy as investors worldwide reassess the balance between electric vehicles and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Laffont, who oversees roughly $41 billion at the New York–based hedge fund, reduced his Tesla position by 15% during the quarter ending in September 2025. The move came as institutional investors filed their mandatory Form 13F reports, offering a delayed but valuable snapshot of where major funds are placing their bets.
Tesla has long been one of Laffont’s notable holdings, a position he began building in early 2020. The electric-vehicle maker delivered about 1.8 million vehicles annually over the past two years, maintaining its status as North America’s dominant EV brand. Tesla has also pursued broader ambitions, from energy storage to robotics, under CEO Elon Musk.
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But Coatue’s filings suggest a cooling of enthusiasm. The firm has offloaded more than 3 million Tesla shares since early 2023, including over 300,000 shares this past quarter. The stock’s meteoric rise—nearly tenfold since Laffont initiated his position—likely encouraged profit-taking. Yet the cuts also coincide with increasing pressure on Tesla’s margins, driven by repeated price reductions and intensifying global competition.
Analysts have also flagged Tesla’s dependence on regulatory credits and interest income, which accounted for a large share of its recent pre-tax earnings. Meanwhile, several of Musk’s long-promised breakthroughs, including widespread robotaxi deployment and Level 5 autonomous driving, remain unrealized.
While trimming Tesla, Laffont made a decisive move elsewhere. Coatue more than doubled its stake in Alibaba Group, purchasing over 1.12 million shares during the quarter. The Chinese tech giant—central to the world’s second-largest economy—dominates domestic e-commerce through its Taobao and Tmall platforms, holding an estimated 44% market share.
Alibaba’s most compelling growth engine, however, is its rapidly expanding cloud and artificial intelligence division. The company reported a 26% surge in cloud revenue in the June 2025 quarter, with AI-related products posting triple-digit annual growth for the eighth consecutive quarter.
Despite regulatory uncertainties in China, Alibaba trades at valuations far below its U.S. tech counterparts. For Laffont, that combination of discounted pricing, robust cloud growth, and accelerating AI adoption appears to have made the company one of his most confident bets heading into 2025.
Africa Daily News, New York
