I'm LongbridgeAI, I can summarize articles.Peter Thiel's fund, Thiel Macro, made a bold move in the most recent quarter by deploying over $418 million across eight stocks after two quarters of zero holdings. His top position is Amazon (AMZN), representing 28% of the portfolio with 495,000 shares purchased. Thiel also invested in energy companies like Vista Energy and Vistra Corp. Amazon's AI revenue run rate exceeded $25 billion, driven by AWS and chip sales, making it a key beneficiary of the AI boom.
Peter Thiel is the name behind two massive tech success stories, and he's also demonstrated his ability to identify a top tech business, even in that company's earliest days. The billionaire and venture capitalist is co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, and he was the first outside investor in Facebook, now known as Meta Platforms.
All of this makes him a great person to look to for investing inspiration, particularly in the field of technology. Thiel's fund, Thiel Macro, brought its investments to zero for two straight quarters -- the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year -- but in the most recent three-month period, he made a bold move. He picked up shares of an artificial intelligence (AI) player that's climbed 200,000% since its initial public offering and made it his No. 1 position.
Now you might be wondering whether this stock, which has already soared over time, still has room to run. Thiel's proven ability to select winning companies should offer us confidence. Let's zoom in for a closer look.
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Thiel's investments in technology and energy
So, first, let's consider Thiel's moves. After two quarters of absence from stocks, he deployed more than $418 million across eight. One of them is the technology company I'll focus on here, and the others are involved in the energy space -- but it's important to keep in mind that certain energy players, fueling power for AI, actually may be a bet on the AI growth story. To support high-level compute, energy sources are greatly needed, and this means a number of these companies could deliver tremendous growth in the years to come.
In the quarter, Thiel bought the following energy stocks:
Vista Energy
Vistra Corp.
American Electric Power Co.
DTE Energy
FirstEnergy Corp
CMS Energy
X-Energy
But the biggest purchase of all was Thiel's investment in tech giant Amazon (AMZN -0.15%), a company that's winning in the e-commerce and cloud computing markets. Thiel bought 495,000 Amazon shares, and the company now represents 28% of his portfolio.
Leadership built over time
Amazon isn't a new kid on the block. The company has built its leadership over time, generating billions of dollars in revenue and profit quarter after quarter. In the most recent full year, revenue topped $716 billion.
Prior to the AI boom, Amazon already was an e-commerce and cloud powerhouse, but the good news is AI offered this well-established company a new growth driver. Amazon is a user, developer, and seller of the technology, so it benefits in many ways. For example, AI has helped streamline processes across the e-commerce fulfillment network, lowering Amazon's cost to serve. And Amazon's sales of its own AI chips, as well as the AI products of others, have helped Amazon Web Services' (AWS) revenue to skyrocket.
NASDAQ: AMZN
Key Data Points
In the recent quarter, Amazon said its chips business revenue increased in the triple digits to an annual run rate of more than $25 billion. And its AI revenue run rate also advanced in the triple digits to more than $25 billion. The key to Amazon's success is that it's the world's biggest cloud services provider; the company offers a wide range of products and services, including AI and non-AI.
"Customers choose AWS because we offer the broadest capabilities," chief Andy Jassy said in the latest earnings call.
Amazon continues to invest heavily to build out AI infrastructure to meet high demand, and as AI is applied more frequently in the real world, it's clear that more growth may be on the horizon. Thiel hasn't revealed a reason behind his big Amazon stock purchase, but it's very likely that he sees this potential and aims to get in on it early.
Meanwhile, Amazon stock today trades for 20x forward earnings estimates, which looks dirt cheap considering the company's track record of earnings performance and long-term prospects. That means right now is a great time to get in on this Peter Thiel favorite.