Coatue’s Laffont Cuts Tesla, Oracle, Nvidia; Buys Lucid

Coatue Management founder Philippe Laffont reduced major stakes in Q1 2026, cutting Tesla by about 96%, trimming Nvidia by roughly 31%, selling his entire Oracle position and initiating a new position in Lucid Group, filings show.

Regulatory filings for the March quarter show Coatue purchased approximately 295,300 Lucid shares for about $2.8 million. The firm reported the heavy reductions in Tesla and Oracle alongside the Nvidia trim in the same filings.

Coatue’s exit from Oracle followed the software company’s decision to raise full-year capital expenditure guidance to $50 billion to support infrastructure expansion. The filings and related commentary point to concerns about elevated capex and the near-term monetization of AI investments as factors in portfolio changes.

The firm reduced its Tesla exposure after CEO Elon Musk tempered expectations for the commercial rollout of a robotaxi fleet. Analysts have flagged rising AI-related capital spending at Tesla as a pressure on free cash flow and year-over-year cash generation, and Coatue realized gains and significantly shrank its position in the quarter.

Coatue trimmed Nvidia despite the chipmaker’s strong first-quarter results. The reduction of about 31% reflects a lower tolerance for concentration in the largest beneficiaries of the recent AI rally, according to the filings.

Lucid has declined about 94% since its September 2020 IPO and lost nearly half of its market value so far in 2026. Coatue’s filings and public notes indicate the firm viewed Lucid and other beaten-down clean energy and EV-related stocks as potential contrarian opportunities.

The firm’s investment thesis referenced recent geopolitical developments, including the U.S.-Iran conflict and a temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Those events have led some strategists to treat alternative energy and domestic EV infrastructure as matters of national security, a factor Coatue cited when reallocating capital.

Street analysts maintain a consensus rating of “hold” on Lucid, with a mean price target near $11 per share, implying more than 60% upside from current levels. Coatue is one of several institutional managers to change sector exposures during the March quarter.

Coatue, founded by Laffont and often associated with the so-called Tiger Cub generation of hedge funds, moved capital away from a set of large AI-linked names and added to a distressed EV manufacturer during the first quarter of 2026. The firm’s filings document those shifts and the portfolio positions at the end of the quarter.