Embracing the AI trend! Bridgewater Associates Q1 abandons consumer stocks for tech giants: Google and Nvidia enter the top five heavy positions

According to the disclosure from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the world's largest hedge fund Bridgewater Associates submitted its first-quarter holdings report (13F) as of March 31, 2024.

The statistical data shows that Bridgewater Associates' total market value of holdings in the first quarter reached $17.9 billion, compared to $16.5 billion in the previous quarter, representing a quarter-on-quarter growth of 8.48%. Bridgewater added 87 new stocks to its portfolio in the first quarter and increased holdings in 260 stocks. At the same time, Bridgewater reduced holdings in 385 stocks and cleared out 85 stocks. Among them, the top ten holdings of Bridgewater accounted for 31.4% of the total market value.

In the top ten heavy-weighted stocks of Bridgewater's first-quarter holdings, they are mainly concentrated in tech giants, index funds, and consumer stocks. However, unlike in the past, many emerging market index funds and consumer stocks in the U.S. market were reduced by Bridgewater in the first quarter, while tech giants continued to be increased, gradually raising their positions in the fund.

It is understood that by the end of March this year, Bridgewater mentioned in the documents submitted to the SEC that with the development of computational technology, data analysis, and related fields, portfolio management, trading, portfolio risk management, and other investment processes are increasingly inclined to use tools such as generative artificial intelligence, large language models, machine learning, artificial neural networks, etc.

Among them, iShares S&P 500 Index ETF (IVV.US) still ranks first, with approximately 2.09 million shares held, a holding market value of about $1.102 billion, accounting for 5.57% of the investment portfolio, but a decrease of 1.19% in the number of shares held compared to the previous quarter.

Emerging Markets Core ETF (IEMG.US) ranks second, with approximately 18.66 million shares held, a holding market value of about $963 million, accounting for 4.87% of the investment portfolio, with a decrease of 0.16% in the number of shares held compared to the previous quarter.

Google (GOOGL.US) ranks third, with approximately 5.36 million shares held, a holding market value of about $810 million, accounting for 4.10% of the investment portfolio, with a significant increase of 162.61% in the number of shares held compared to the previous quarter.

Procter & Gamble (PG.US) ranks fourth, with approximately 4.1 million shares held, a holding market value of about $666 million, accounting for 3.37% of the investment portfolio, with a decrease of 11.56% in the number of shares held compared to the previous quarter. It is understood that this stock has been reduced for multiple consecutive quartersNVIDIA (NVDA.US) ranks fifth in terms of holdings, with approximately 700,000 shares and a holding market value of about USD 636 million, accounting for 3.22% of the investment portfolio. The number of shares held increased significantly by 162.43% compared to the previous quarter.

Among the top ten major holdings, Bridgewater's sixth to tenth largest holdings are Meta Platforms (META.US), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.US), Walmart (WMT.US), Costco (COST.US), and Coca-Cola (KO.US). Meta Platforms saw a significant increase of 49.24% compared to the previous quarter, while consumer stocks such as Walmart, Costco, and Coca-Cola were significantly reduced from the previous quarter.

Google, NVIDIA, and Meta ranked third, fifth, and sixth respectively, displacing PepsiCo, McDonald's, and SPDR S&P 500 Index ETF.

In terms of changes in holdings, the top five stocks bought are: Google, NVIDIA, Apple (AAPL.US), Meta Platforms, and Amazon (AMZN.US). Since the first quarter of last year, Bridgewater Fund has been increasing its holdings in technology stocks. In the current quarter, the top five stocks bought by the fund are all tech giants. Amazon was the largest new position added by Bridgewater in the first quarter, buying nearly 1.05 million shares valued at USD 189 million. The second largest new long position added was chip manufacturer AMD, with nearly 680,000 shares bought valued at USD 123 million. It is worth mentioning that Bridgewater also significantly increased its holdings in Apple by 1.841045 million shares, bringing the total holdings to 1.842154 million shares valued at USD 316 million, compared to holding only 1109 shares at the end of last year.

In contrast, Bridgewater reduced its weighting in the consumer staples sector the most this quarter. The top five stocks sold include: Pinduoduo (PDD.US), Coca-Cola (KO.US), Costco (COST.US), Cisco (CSCO.US), and McDonald's (MCD.US). It is worth noting that both Bunge Limited (BG.US), one of the world's four major grain traders, and US Foods Holding Corp (USFD.US) were completely sold off