This is the second of a three-part series. Part 1 covers the state of the nation plus some of the better-known investors, while Part 2 covers some less-known investors worth following. Part 3 will bring it all together, and we will look at the big trends and takeaways from these quarterly filings and include a short take on the major moves.
Find Part 1 here:
Find Part 3 here:
Invest alongside me
I don’t just write about these companies — I invest in them. My Wikifolio is where I put the research and investment approach you read about here into practice, with a concentrated portfolio built for the long term.
Current investments include Arista Networks, Alphabet, ASML, AMD, Booking, and others.
Gavin Baker - Atreides Management
Gavin Baker has been a regular guest on the Invest like the best podcast, and I love how clearly he articulates this thinking on current AI trends and future developments. I have listened to his “Watts and Wafers” episode more than once, and I encourage you to listen to it as well.
Naturally, I was curious about the titles that Gavin Baker invests in. He talks very positively about SpaceX on his podcasts, and boy does he back it up with actions. As of the 30th of June, SpaceX made up 42% of the overall fund. Talk about conviction.
SpaceX hasn’t been doing too well since the IPO, but that had to be assumed due to the insane market cap at which it was brought to the market.
The next largest position is Micron, a clear investment for the DRAM/HBM supply cycle, and Cerebras, a newly listed AI inference chip company that uses a whole wafer as a chip, a design choice which is a novel approach to building chips.
I will keep track of Gavin Baker’s portfolio positions going forward, since it is a very interesting portfolio, even though I would not touch SpaceX.
Arista Networks is also a massive beneficiary of the current AI buildout. Read about the reasons why it is so special here:
Pat Dorsey - Dorsey Asset Management
Pat Dorsey further trimmed his large ASML position after a fantastic run. Learn what I did with my ASML position recently here:
As you can see in the screenshot below, Pat Dorsey touched every single position in his portfolio.
The largest changes were the 48% reduction in Sunbelt Rentals, followed by a 39% increase in Applovin and an 80% increase in Booking. Sir, I especially like your Booking choice, a fantastic company about which I just wrote recently here:
Further notable moves included a 32% reduction in AerCap and a 62% increase in the Uber position.
Invest at your own risk; this is not financial advice! This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any securities discussed in the article.
AKO Capital
As you can see, AKO Capital touched every single position. Unlike Pat Dorsey, who sold almost half of his Sunbelt Rentals position, AKO Capital almost doubled the position. This again shows that there are many ways to beat the market, and not a single one is the best one.
The largest move was a 75% reduction of Waters, followed by the aforementioned Sunbelt Rentals increase. Unlike Pat Dorsey, AKO Capital sold all of the Booking shares, which were beforehand a 4% position of the fund. They also sold 40% of Analog Devices, 34% of Amazon, 35% of Cisco, and 46% of Intercontinental Exchange.
AKO still has quite a large position in Ferrari. Learn more about my take on Ferrari here.
Francois Rochon - Giverny Capital
Unlike the managers before him, Francois Rochon has a very diversified portfolio. The changes he makes to the portfolio are also minuscule compared to other fund managers. The only two changes that he made that affected more than 2% of his fund were a 34% reduction in Berkshire Hathaway and a 56% reduction in Keysight Technologies.
The largest buys were the 56% increase in Automatic Data Processing and a new position in the New York Times. I was surprised to see how well the New York Times stock has performed in the last 10 years:
Akre Capital Management
I have corrected one important detail: Akre Capital Management is not being run actively by Chuck Akre himself anymore. He serves as chairman, and the CIO is John Neff.
After reducing the largest position, Mastercard, by 24% in Q1, Akre Capital followed up with another 13% reduction. At first I was surprised by these moves, since Mastercard was finally at an interesting valuation, causing me to write this article:
When I checked his assets under management, a trend appeared: Due to the quite large underperformance compared to the broad market, Akre Capital faced strong redemptions. This caused them to sell shares across the board in order to have the liquidity to serve the people who decided to pull their money from the fund.
This is the end of the free section. If you want to
✅ See exactly how deep the redemption-driven selling went — Akre Capital cut six different positions, including a 44% reduction in one of the largest holdings
✅ Josh Tarasoff has held Amazon as his largest position, uninterrupted, since Q1/2022 — see what he finally changed this quarter
✅ Find out who sold 93% of their Taiwan Semiconductor position, and what they rotated into instead
✅ Access all previous deep dives and portfolio updates
✅ Have profited from previous picks (ASML, Alphabet, Arista, AMD, and many more)
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