David Tepper’s 3 Biggest Bets in The Second Quarter: Buy, Sell or Hold?

Vandita JadejaTue, August 18, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC

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Quick Read -

TSM's 36% revenue growth and AI demand runway through 2030 make it Tepper's strongest bet versus AAPL's stretched 40x P/E.

CoreWeave doubled revenue but burned nearly $6B in free cash flow, making its 47% year-to-date rally a compelling exit point.

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David Tepper's Appaloosa Management disclosed three especially large positions in its second-quarter filing, and at today's prices we see the setups differently across Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) at $305.93, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) at $426.35, and CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) at $105.26, with the risk/reward tilting cautious, constructive, and skeptical respectively.

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Tepper's trio spans consumer tech, foundry monopoly, and speculative AI infrastructure, and the risk/reward at current levels is very different for each.

Apple: Priced for Perfection After a Tariff-Boosted Quarter

The bull case is real. Fiscal Q3 revenue hit $109.42 billion, up 16.4% year over year, iPhone jumped to $54.25 billion, and Services set a June-quarter record at $30.74 billion. Tim Cook called it Apple's "strongest June quarter ever", and management is deploying a $100 billion buyback authorization on top of $62.09B already repurchased through nine months.

The bear case is stretched valuation and a low-quality tailwind. Apple trades at a P/E of about 40, gross margin got a roughly 2-point one-time boost from tariff refunds, and Cook warned of a "100-year flood on the memory pricing" that will pressure September margins.

Greater China revenue slipped to $18.82B from $20.50B sequentially, and shares are down 6.5% over the past month even as they hold a 31.91% one-year gain that tops the S&P 500's broader advance. Siri AI is the swing factor. The setup looks range-bound until the memory reset and holiday iPhone data clear the air.

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Taiwan Semiconductor: Structural AI Demand Supports the Multiple

TSMC's Q2 was a standout. Revenue rose 36% year over year to $40.20 billion, EPS came in at $4.31 versus $3.89 expected, and gross margin expanded to 67.7%.

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Advanced nodes at 7nm and below now account for 77% of wafer revenue, and management guided full-year 2026 growth slightly above 40% in USD while raising capex to $60 billion to $64 billion. CEO Cici Wei said AI demand runs "all the way to probably 2029, 2030".

Yes, Q3 gross margin guidance of 65% to 67% reflects 2nm ramp dilution, and Taiwan Strait risk never disappears. But shares are up 41% year to date and 78.82% over one year, comfortably ahead of the S&P 500, and the multiple is supported by pricing power on nodes no rival can produce. Tepper's thesis here looks the cleanest of the three.

TSM Analyst Ratings — 24/7 Wall St.CoreWeave: A Leveraged AI Landlord Facing a Rally

CoreWeave's Q2 revenue doubled to $2.575 billion with a jaw-dropping $104 billion revenue backlog, and Nasdaq-100 inclusion has fueled a 36.49% one-month rally. Bulls love the 59% adjusted EBITDA margin and the Meta and OpenAI commitments.

The capital structure complicates the story. Q2 capex hit $6.42 billion, free cash flow was negative $5.74 billion, net loss widened to $626 million, and interest expense reached $640 million. Debt-to-equity sits at 8.94 with net debt/EBITDA of 10.75.

Any hiccup in AI capex, customer concentration, or credit spreads breaks the model. Year-to-date the stock is up 46.99%, well above the S&P 500, giving holders a strong exit. At $105.26, the risk/reward for CoreWeave looks skewed against holders here.

Analyst price targets are one input among many, and Tepper's filings lag reality. Position the trio for what the fundamentals say now.

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Contact editorial@247wallst.com for any questions or corrections.

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Source: “AOL Money”