Maverick Capital, led by Lee Ainslie, increased its position in stocks such as Uber, Snowflake, and Carvana last quarter. A regulatory filing shows that the hedge fund added 15% to Uber’s stake to $133million at March’s close. Maverick has lost more than 40% in its eighth largest holding on ride-hailing companies. According to the filing, Maverick’s Carvana stake grew by three-fifths to $75 million at its end of the quarter. The stake in Snowflake has risen to almost $44 million. The duo has sold off drastically this year — with Carvana down more than 80% and Snowflake off by 58%. Ainslie, who had previously worked under Julian Robertson from Tiger Management, founded Maverick. Tiger Cub, a value investor who is well-known for his investments in technology. Maverick could have experienced steep losses like the other large tech-oriented hedge funds, such as Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global or Brad Gerstner’s Altimeter. There was literally nowhere in technology to hide. In the wake of increasing rates, tech has suffered the worst, with a particular focus on unprofitable software companies and high-valued names. The Nasdaq Composite has fallen 24% and 27% respectively from its high. Maverick’s largest holding was Coupang, a South Korean ecommerce company. It was 56% lower than last year. Maverick had a lot of top tech holdings including megacap names like Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, and Meta Platforms. Even though they had stronger fundamentals than their peers, the big tech companies still felt the effects of last year’s market correction. All three fell by more than a third in 2022.
