The AI trade is one crowded, levered position wearing four different tickers.
Coatue, Philippe Laffont’s $90 billion tech fund, fell 8.3% in July, its worst month in over a year. Its four biggest bets all cratered the same month: TSMC and GE Vernova down more than 15%, Lam Research and Applied Materials down more than 29%.
The slide got worse when another fund, Situational Awareness, dumped its stock portfolio to Citadel to meet margin calls. Forced selling in the same names hits everyone who holds them.
When leverage is packed into a handful of AI and chip stocks, one fund’s margin call becomes your drawdown. Own the AI leaders and you own the whole crowd’s leverage.
The AI trade is one crowded, levered position wearing four different tickers.
Coatue, Philippe Laffont's $90 billion tech fund, fell 8.3% in July, its worst month in over a year. Its four biggest bets all cratered the same month: TSMC and GE Vernova down more than 15%, Lam… pic.twitter.com/CY6XeNAgrX
— Kurt S. Altrichter, CRPS® (@kurtsaltrichter) August 4, 2026
The credit market is pricing an AI blowup louder than the stock market.
Oracle's 5-year CDS pushed past 215 basis points, higher than it ever hit in 2008. Traders now imply a 16% chance it defaults, and hyperscalers are about 80% more likely to default than the average… pic.twitter.com/qLBZqyua4d
— Kurt S. Altrichter, CRPS® (@kurtsaltrichter) August 4, 2026
Everyone piled into the same four names with borrowed money. Now one fund’s margin call is the whole trade’s problem. AI hype met leverage math and leverage won. Next time the crowd will swear this time is different.