--- title: "Hedge funds are doubling down on Big Tech even after summer volatility triggered a massive portfolio cleanup" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/296594672.md" description: "Goldman Sachs reports that hedge funds remain heavily concentrated in Big Tech, with Amazon the most popular stock for 11 consecutive quarters. Despite a sharp correction in July due to AI trade volatility and significant de-grossing, U.S. equity hedge funds have delivered a 10% year-to-date return as of August 19. While maintaining high exposure to AI-related megacaps, funds are beginning to broaden portfolios, increasing net tilts in healthcare, financials, and energy." datetime: "2026-08-21T09:11:00.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/296594672.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/296594672.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/296594672.md) generator: "portal-rs" --- # Hedge funds are doubling down on Big Tech even after summer volatility triggered a massive portfolio cleanup By Jules Rimmer Amazon remains the most popular stock for hedge funds, says Goldman Sachs Amazon remains the most widely held name among fund managers for the 11th straight quarter, but SpaceX is a new entry among the most popular, Goldman reports. The hedge fund industry is still all-in on the AI trade. Nine out of 10 of the most popular stocks for hedge funds are megacap tech companies and the ups and downs of the AI sector still drive their performance, their leverage and their positioning. In July, this concentration led to the hedge fund industry's worst month in two decades versus the S&P 500 SPX as the AI trade turned sour. Nonetheless, despite the volatility, hedge funds have still delivered a 10% return for the year up to August 19. U.S. equity hedge funds have returned 10% YTD as of Aug. 19, 2026 That's according to Goldman Sachs' hedge fund trend monitor that published Thursday and encompasses almost 1,000 funds with $5.4 trillion of gross equity positioning. According to Ben Snider and his portfolio strategy research team, what determines stock market returns for this asset class at present are prospects for the AI trade. While hedge funds enjoyed a strong second quarter, especially in June, they took a hit in July when semiconductors led a stock correction, and a flood of hyperscalers earnings reports raised doubts about the sustainability of the AI capex boom. July in fact, Snider points out, was "one of the sharpest hedge fund de-grossing episodes in the last decade," when funds reduced the overall size of their trading books rather than just net exposure. Although the asset class has generally cut its gross positioning and reduced its leverage, Goldman finds that exposure is still elevated relative to longer histories. Long positioning in exchange-traded funds, for example, is 5.6% and the highest since the global financial crisis. Equity hedge fund returns dipped in July but have rebounding in August Snider notes that the best-performing parts of the AI trade were the places hedge funds added most during the second quarter, and unsurprisingly, these were the sectors correcting most severely in July. Among AI-related stocks, those of Digital Realty Trust (DLR), Viavi Solutions Inc (VIAV) and Advanced Energy Industries (AEIS) registered the biggest increases in popularity. The Goldman team notes that, for the 11th consecutive quarter Amazon (AMZN) remains the popular hedge fund stock of all. While nine of the top 10 are AI-related, Visa (V) is the sole exception. Newcomers to the top 50 most popular hedge fund stocks include SpaceX (SPCX), Snowflake (SNOW), Compass (COMP) , Liberty Media Corp (FWONK), Coupang Inc (CPNG), Sea Limited (SE) and FTAI Aviation (FTAI). Despite the emphasis on AI, however, hedge funds have started to broaden their portfolios with net tilts (a directional or thematic bias in a portfolio of stocks) in healthcare, financials and energy rising to their highest in 10 years. In healthcare, Axsome Therapeutics (AXSM) and Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) were new additions to the list of most popular holdings, while in financials, Capital One Financial (COF) attracted a lot of new buyers. -Jules Rimmer This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. 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