Lately, billionaire Philippe Laffont has been making bold moves. During the second quarter, Laffont sold part of his Amazon stake, trimming it by about 5% and turned his attention to a name most retail investors barely know, CoreWeave, a company that sits at the center of the AI infrastructure explosion.
Key Points
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Laffont slightly reduced Amazon after strong gains, but it remains a core holding with AI fueling growth across e-commerce, ads, and cloud.
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He made Nvidia-backed CoreWeave his largest position.
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With 90% expected annual growth and Nvidia holding 91% equity, CoreWeave represents Laffont’s high-conviction bet on the backbone of the AI revolution.
Trim and a Massive Bet
Laffont unloaded nearly 600,000 shares of Amazon, still keeping it as his third-largest holding at 6% of the portfolio.
At the same time, he went big on CoreWeave, buying over 3 million shares of the Nvidia-backed company.
That single move vaulted CoreWeave to the top spot in Coatue’s portfolio, now accounting for about 8% of total assets.
It’s a bold shift but one that makes sense when you understand what CoreWeave really does.
Why Amazon Still Matters
Amazon remains a growth machine hidden in plain sight. It dominates:
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40% of U.S. e-commerce
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15% of digital advertising
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30% of global cloud infrastructure via AWS — nearly equal to Microsoft and Google combined in certain segments.
What many investors miss is how deeply AI is embedded in Amazon’s DNA today. The company runs thousands of machine-learning models to forecast demand, optimize delivery routes, and manage dynamic pricing.
Its ad platform now uses generative AI to produce visuals and headlines for brands automatically.
And AWS recently rolled out AI agents that can perform business workflows on command, a subtle but powerful moat builder.
In the latest quarter, Amazon’s revenue grew to over $165 billion, while operating margins expanded to 8%, a level not seen since before the pandemic. Free cash flow has rebounded to over $30 billion over the past year.
So, Laffont trimmed his position, but it’s hard to imagine he’s betting against one of AI’s biggest profit engines.
CoreWeave Is The “Specialized Cloud” Built for AI
CoreWeave isn’t your typical cloud provider. While Amazon, Microsoft, and Google built massive data centers to handle everything from storage to streaming, CoreWeave was designed from the ground up for AI workloads, particularly those that need enormous GPU power.
Think of it as the Formula 1 version of cloud computing, engineered for speed and precision in AI training, inference, and rendering.
Founded by three former Ethereum miners in 2017, CoreWeave saw early that the future of computing would revolve around GPUs, not CPUs. That foresight has paid off spectacularly.
Today, it’s one of Nvidia’s closest strategic partners, with early access to cutting-edge chips like the H200 and the upcoming Blackwell B200 GPUs.
In fact, according to semiconductor research firm SemiAnalysis, CoreWeave now ranks as the #1 AI cloud in performance and reliability, outpacing even AWS and Azure in specialized compute capacity.
Explosive Growth and Eye-Popping Contracts
CoreWeave’s numbers tell the story thanks to revenue popping by 207% year-over-year last quarter to $1.2 billion
Operating income jumped 135%. And just weeks later, CoreWeave inked a $14 billion deal with Meta Platforms, securing GPU capacity for AI model training through 2027. That single contract may generate more revenue than the entire company was worth pre-IPO.
Still, this growth comes at a cost: CoreWeave is borrowing heavily to fund its data-center expansion.
Interest expenses chewed up over 20% of quarterly revenue, a red flag for most companies but management insists each debt issuance is fully backed by signed contracts. Essentially, they’re financing new capacity only when demand is already guaranteed.
What the Smartest Money Sees
Wall Street expects CoreWeave’s revenue to compound at 90% annually through 2027. For context, even Nvidia’s fastest-growing years never hit that pace. Yet the company trades at about 15 times sales, lofty, yes, but not insane for triple-digit growth in a market with near-unlimited demand.
Nvidia owns about 91% of CoreWeave’s equity stake through a combination of direct investment and convertible debt. That’s not a casual endorsement, it’s a bet that CoreWeave will become Nvidia’s primary distribution partner for cloud-based GPU capacity.
Put differently as Nvidia sells the shovels in the AI gold rush, CoreWeave is the infrastructure company building the mine shafts.
A Bet on the Future of Compute
Philippe Laffont’s record shows a clear pattern, he bets early on structural shifts in technology. He was among the first hedge fund managers to pile into Tesla and Zoom long before they became household names.
By rotating some profits out of Amazon and funneling more into CoreWeave, he’s effectively betting that AI infrastructure, not just AI applications, will be the next trillion-dollar opportunity.
The stock’s volatility since its IPO might scare off short-term traders, but for long-term investors comfortable with risk, CoreWeave could be one of the purest ways to invest in the infrastructure that powers the AI revolution.