Crazy sell: Microsoft's position worth 8 billion US dollars! Well-known technology hedge fund "clears warehouse after holding stocks for ten years"

Renowned hedge fund TCI has significantly reduced its holdings in Microsoft, selling almost all of its long-term substantial bets made over the past decade, citing the structural threat posed by artificial intelligence to Microsoft's core software business. According to a letter obtained by the Financial Times on May 8th, TCI fund founder Sir Christopher Hohn has reduced the Microsoft holdings from 10% of the portfolio at the end of last year to just 1% by the end of the first quarter of this year, involving approximately $8 billion. Hohn explicitly stated in the letter: "We have reduced our holdings in Microsoft because the rapid advancement of AI has brought uncertainty to Microsoft's future competitive position." He specifically mentioned the impact on Microsoft's Office software business and also expressed some concerns about the outlook for the cloud computing platform Azure. This clear-out comes against the background of Microsoft's stock price falling by more than 12% since the beginning of this year, reflecting the market's widespread doubts about whether Microsoft can convert its substantial investment in AI into commercial returns. At the same time, TCI increased its holdings in Alphabet during the same period, pushing its stake from 3% to 5%, making it the largest tech holding in the fund. AI Impact on Office and Azure, Microsoft's Moat Questioned Hohn's concerns about Microsoft in the investor letter are focused on two main areas. First is the Office software business. He believes that the rapid evolution of AI may reshape existing workflows, creating new productivity platforms, and thereby shaking Microsoft's long-standing dominance in Office. The second area of concern is the cloud computing business Azure, where Hohn also expressed "some level of risk" assessment. Microsoft, through its stake in OpenAI, benefited from the Wall Street AI frenzy in recent years, with its share price soaring at one point. However, in 2026, there has been a clear shift in market sentiment - investors are starting to question whether Microsoft can translate its continuing expansion of AI capital expenditure into significant commercial returns, leading to Microsoft's stock falling by more than 12% this year. While reducing its holdings in Microsoft, TCI took the opposite approach with Alphabet, pushing its stake from 3% to 5%, making Alphabet the fund's largest tech holding currently. This repositioning reveals TCI's structural reshaping within the tech sector - moving from wavering confidence in Microsoft to relatively optimistic prospects for Alphabet's competition. However, overall, TCI is not strictly a tech-focused fund, with tech stocks accounting for a relatively small proportion of its portfolio. The World's Most Profitable Hedge Fund, Focusing on Infrastructure and Aerospace Since the fourth quarter of 2017, TCI has virtually held Microsoft shares continuously (disappeared briefly from regulatory disclosure in 2023). During this period, Microsoft's share price has risen by nearly 400%, leading to substantial gains for TCI. The reduction in holdings signifies the substantive end of this nearly decade-long investment relationship. Hohn is known for his long holding periods, with an average holding time of about nine years, far exceeding most hedge fund peers. His investment philosophy focuses on concentrating bets on a few companies with strong competitive barriers - currently, TCI's holdings cover only 15 stocks, compared to many other hedge funds of similar size holding dozens or even hundreds of stocks. TCI made a profit of $18.9 billion last year, topping the list of the world's most profitable hedge funds, surpassing those under Ken Griffin's Citadel and Izzy Englander's Millennium. In terms of overall holdings, TCI's core allocation is concentrated in infrastructure and aerospace, rather than tech stocks. Its largest holding is GE Aerospace, accounting for a whopping 18% of the portfolio; it also holds significant stakes in Visa, Moody's, and infrastructure company Ferrovial. This article is a reprint from Wall Street News, author Dong Jing; GMTEight editor: Wen Wen.