Billionaire investor admits selling all his Nvidia stock was a ‘Big Mistake’

With Nvidia’s (NASDAQ: NVDA) stock price targeting new highs, billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller has expressed regret over liquidating his position in the chipmaker.

The Duquesne Capital founder termed the sale a ‘big mistake,’ noting it ranks among the worst decisions he has made in his investment career, having sold all his Nvidia shares at $800 and $950; he made the remarks in an interview with Bloomberg on October 16. 

“I’ve made so many mistakes in my investment career — one of them was I sold all my Nvidia, probably somewhere between $800 and $950. <..> I own none, and I owned none, the last 400 points,” he said. 

The American philanthropist didn’t rule out investing in Nvidia again despite the sale.

“Nvidia is a wonderful company and were the price to come down, we’d get involved again. But right now, I’m licking my wounds from a bad sale,” he added. 

Notably, the sentiment does not factor in Nvidia’s 10-for-1 stock split, implemented in June. When adjusting for the stock split, he would have liquidated his position between $80 and $95.

Had the investor retained his holdings in the semiconductor giant, the shares would now be worth $1.19 billion. Before the sale, Duquesne held approximately 6.18 million NVDA shares at the start of the year, which decreased to 1.76 million by the end of Q1 and 214,000 by the close of Q2.

Interestingly, in Q3 2023, Nvidia was Druckenmiller’s top holding, with 8.75 million shares valued at around $400 million.

Cashing in on Nvidia’s AI boom 

The sale occurred during a period when Nvidia enjoyed bullish momentum, driven by the company’s role in artificial intelligence (AI). 

At the time, Druckenmiller claimed the company was overhyped in the short term but remained optimistic about its long-term prospects, stating that the tech giant was “underhyped long-term.”

Reviewing Nvidia’s stock price, the equity seeks to claim the $140 level after the momentum was slowed on October 15. This followed reports that the U.S. government may restrict the sale of the company’s advanced AI chips to certain countries.

At the market opening on October 17, the stock was rallying in line with other semiconductor companies, which received a boost from contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) beating analyst estimates in its Q3 2024 results.

NVDA share price analysis

By press time, Nvidia was trading at $139.42, up over 2% for the day. On the weekly timeframe, NVDA rallied almost 4%. 

In this regard, Chief Strategist Scott Redler’s analysis in an X post on October 17 noted that Nvidia has already shown an inclination towards clinching the $140 resistance level and has enough power to stay above this level.

Overall, if the current momentum is sustained, some analysts maintain that Nvidia will hit a high of $150, citing the impact of the company’s upcoming next-generation Blackwell chips. 

Market experts view Blackwell as a cash cow for the company in the coming years, with CEO Jensen Huang having stated that the chip line “is in full production” and that demand for it “is insane.”