Billionaire David Tepper nearly doubled his Amazon stake in Q1 2026 to roughly $900 million, making it his largest holding—a contrarian move while insiders and other large investors sold.
His bet centers on AWS's accelerating growth (28% year-over-year to $37.59 billion in Q1) and Amazon's custom chip business scaling at triple digits, though the position faces near-term pressure as capital expenditures (Amazon projects about $200 billion in 2026) overwhelm free cash flow until AWS revenue catches up.
What happened
David Tepper's Appaloosa Management nearly doubled its Amazon stake in the first quarter of 2026, adding roughly 2.14 million shares to reach about 4.3 million shares (worth approximately $900 million), disclosed in a 13F filed May 15. Amazon is now Tepper's single largest holding at roughly 15% of his $5.93 billion portfolio, up from third place at 7% in Q4 2025.
Why it matters
Tepper accumulated Amazon while insiders—including founder Jeff Bezos, CEO Andy Jassy, and others—were selling into the May rally, and Berkshire Hathaway fully exited the same quarter. His thesis bets on AWS's acceleration (28% year-over-year growth in Q1 2026 to $37.59 billion, the fastest pace in 15 quarters) and Amazon's custom chip business growing at triple digits, rather than betting on NVIDIA directly. However, Amazon's trailing free cash flow has collapsed to $1.2 billion as capital expenditures overwhelm operating cash, creating pressure that persists until AWS revenue catches up to the buildout.
What to watch
Amazon traded at $208.27 on March 31, 2026, and has risen more than 29% to $268.78 on August 12. The key milestones are AWS growth trajectory and free cash flow recovery into 2027, which will either confirm or break Tepper's thesis. Analyst consensus sits at $312.71 with 62 buy ratings and zero sells.
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