Institutional investors established fresh stakes across the semiconductor sector and related AI infrastructure plays in the first quarter, positioning portfolios to benefit from a rally that carried into the second quarter, according to a review of quarterly 13-F filings submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Data compiled from filings by roughly 6,600 hedge funds, pension funds, endowments and other large investors show that nearly 5,000 of those reporting by late afternoon Friday disclosed purchases of one or more of 17 semiconductor companies tracked in the review. The filings capture holdings filed within the 45-day reporting window that follows each calendar quarter and therefore reflect positions as of March 31; they do not include changes made after that date.
Among the most actively acquired chipmakers was Micron Technology. Institutional filings show 2,440 firms reported initiating new positions in Micron during the quarter. Micron's shares have surged 154% so far this year as demand for memory components tied to artificial intelligence workloads strengthened. Rockefeller Capital Management and Schroder Investment Management were among the named buyers listed in filings.
Intel also attracted substantial new institutional interest, with a number of large investors initiating positions as the company's stock has climbed 195% year to date. Tiger Global Management disclosed it began a stake in Intel in the first quarter; filings also show new Intel positions by Neuberger Berman and MetLife Asset Management.
Northern Trust stood out as a notable buyer across the space, initiating new holdings not only in Intel and Micron but also in Seagate Technology and Western Digital during the quarter. Those stocks have soared 188% and 179%, respectively, so far this year.
Buying was not confined to pure-play chip names. More than 4,000 institutional filers added to existing holdings or initiated positions in a cluster of nine companies identified as major players in AI infrastructure. That group includes Oracle, Arista Networks and Vertiv, among others. Only 164 institutions in the dataset reported reducing exposure to that set of AI-infrastructure names in the quarter.
Data center companies - which provide the racks, networking and power systems that underpin large-scale AI deployments - drew strong investor interest. Utilities, which are expected to supply a significant portion of the incremental electricity demand created by expanding data center capacity, similarly saw meaningful inflows. The 13-F filings available as of late Friday indicated no institutions had reduced or liquidated utility positions during the first quarter, while nearly 3,800 reported they either added to existing utility holdings or initiated new ones.
Institutional positioning around the so-called "Magnificent Seven" AI leaders appeared more selective. The filings suggest investors were cautious about whether that cohort could maintain elevated levels of AI spending and growth. Overall, sellers narrowly outnumbered buyers for the group across the quarter.
High-profile portfolio moves included billionaire investor Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square opening a new stake in Microsoft after a recent decline in the stock price; filings show Pershing Square sold its long-term holding in Alphabet to fund the Microsoft purchase.
Palantir Technologies also drew institutional attention: of the 143 investors that initiated positions in Palantir during the quarter, the sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company reported acquiring a small stake valued at $9.9 million. Mubadala's filings further show it initiated a position in Shopify during the quarter.
Despite some targeted buys such as Mubadala's, software-as-a-service (SaaS) stocks experienced net selling pressure in the quarter. Reuters' review of 20 U.S.-listed SaaS names found institutions were more inclined to reduce exposure in that group, with 397 investors liquidating one or more positions during the period.
The filings reviewed provide a snapshot of institutional intent and portfolio composition during the first quarter, but they come with limitations: they reflect filings submitted by the late-afternoon Friday cutoff and do not account for trades or rebalancing undertaken after March 31. Major institutional investors are required to report holdings changes within 45 days of each quarter's end, and the dataset reflects those public disclosures through the reporting deadline.
Overall, the quarter's 13-F activity highlights a pronounced institutional tilt toward semiconductor equities, AI infrastructure suppliers, data center operators and utilities, even as some technology sub-sectors such as SaaS saw outsized liquidation activity.