PayPal and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel dumped Nvidia stock at the peak of the AI boom

A week after Japan's richest man Masaesi Son revealed that his SoftBank had sold its entire $5.8 billion stake in Nvidia in the third quarter, one of the wealthiest men in the US, Peter Thiel, has revealed that he did the same. The decision by an influential tech investor like Thiel to sell a stake in Nvidia could heighten fears that AI stocks are in a bubble or have already passed their peak.

Thiel's hedge fund Thiel Macro reported that it sold all 537,700 shares of Nvidia it owned between July and September 2025 - for $85 million. At the end of June 2025, shares of the main beneficiary of the AI boom accounted for 40% of the fund's portfolio.

Last week, Japan's SoftBank, a major shareholder in Arm Holdings, announced its exit from Nvidia. The Thiel and SoftBank deals, and the news that prominent short-seller Michael Burry had bet on the AI chip market leader's stock falling, followed a brilliant second-quarter performance, with Nvidia's sales rising 56% to $46.7 billion, and in October it became the first company in history to be capitalized at $5 trillion.

While Thiel's exit from his position at Nvidia may alert investors given his credentials as a venture capitalist (he's the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, Facebook's first outside investor), it's worth remembering that the social network's stock has continued to rise since his exit from Facebook in 2012, MarketWatch notes.

Thiel Macro also sold about a quarter of its stake in electric car maker Tesla in the third quarter. But this is now the fund's largest position. In addition, in July-September, he completely got rid of shares in the American energy company Vistra, one of the largest producers of electricity in the United States.

At the same time, Thiel opened positions in Microsoft and Apple. Thus, by early October, his fund held only three stocks: Tesla, Microsoft and Apple. They accounted for 39%, 34% and 27% of the portfolio, respectively.

Despite stagnating in recent weeks, Nvidia shares are up 42% since the start of 2025, outperforming most of the Magnificent Seven except Alphabet. In Monday's premarket, Nvidia shares are down 1.2%.

Ahead of the company's quarterly report scheduled for November 19, the vast majority of analysts are recommending the stock for a buy. According to FactSet, 60 out of 66 ratings are Buy or Overweight, a wait-and-see position with a Hold rating is held by five experts and only one thinks it is necessary to Sell the stock.

Tesla shares are down 0.7% on the premarket, Microsoft is down 0.3% and Apple is down 0.9%. The consensus forecast for Tesla shares is down to a neutral recommendation (Hold), reflecting the market's caution about the electric car maker. At the same time, Wall Street remains optimistic about Microsoft and Apple: experts recommend the software giant's securities to buy with an average rating of Buy, shares of the iPhone maker - with a rating of Overweight, reports FactSet.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor