Coatue's head honcho makes major adjustments: reducing Tesla holdings by 15% and increasing the position in Alibaba by 130%.

According to the latest 13F filing, Philippe Laffont, the founder of Coatue Management, which manages $41 billion in assets, was very active in the third quarter.

The Real Reasons for Reducing Tesla Holdings

As an old shareholder of Tesla since Q1 2020, Laffont made the tough decision to sell off—liquidating 3.07 million shares within three months (a 15% reduction), and having sold off over 3.12 million shares in the past two and a half years (accounting for 64% of the original holdings).

On the surface, it seems like profit-taking (the stock price has increased tenfold in six years), but the deeper issues are more concerning:

• Gross margin is being eroded: Tesla has reduced prices more than 6 times in the past 2.5 years, weakening product competitiveness.
• Low performance quality: 40% of pre-tax revenue in Q3 comes from regulatory credits and interest income, rather than genuine business.
• The Gap Between Promises and Reality: For 11 years, there have been claims of “full self-driving being launched within a year”, and in 2020 it was said that driverless taxis would hit the road… None of these have been fulfilled.

If we strip away these unreliable story premiums, Tesla's true value could be halved.

New “Fruits”: Alibaba

Laffont cast a vote with action - he significantly increased his holdings in Alibaba in Q3, with the number of shares skyrocketing by 130%, accumulating over 1.12 million shares purchased.

At first glance, the risks seem high (uncertainty of Chinese regulation), but what did he see?

1. The e-commerce moat remains strong

• Taobao and Tmall dominate 44% of China's online retail market share (20 percentage points more than the second place).
• The Chinese middle class is still expanding, and the potential for consumption upgrades is much greater than in the United States.

2. AI Cloud Services are Real Growth

• Cloud Intelligence Group sales increased by 26% year-on-year (Q2 data)
• Key Data: Revenue from AI-related products has maintained triple-digit growth for the eighth consecutive quarter.
• This is Alibaba's true profit engine.

3. Valuation Bottom

• 16x forward PE, significantly lower than the “Seven Giants” (including Tesla)
• Not to mention Alibaba's huge net cash.

A Signal

The position adjustments of large fund managers often happen six months ahead of public opinion. Laffont's shift from the high-growth yet story-heavy Tesla to the fundamentally improving but undervalued AI infrastructure provider is a directional change worth pondering.

The Chinese AI cloud market is far from saturated, and pricing power is gradually shifting towards suppliers.