Just noticed something interesting in the latest hedge fund moves. Peter Thiel, the Palantir co-founder and Silicon Valley veteran, made some notable portfolio shifts in Q3 that caught my attention. He's basically doubled down on two AI plays while completely exiting Nvidia and trimming Tesla.

Here's what's wild: Apple and Microsoft now make up 61% of Thiel Macro's portfolio—27% and 34% respectively. That's serious conviction in both stocks. For context, this hedge fund manages $74 million, so while it's a small slice of Thiel's $26 billion net worth, the position sizing tells you something about his confidence in these two.

Let me break down the thesis. On the Apple side, they crushed earnings in their December quarter—16% revenue growth to $143.7 billion despite tariff headwinds. iPhone sales stayed strong, and services kept humming. But here's the thing that matters for AI: Apple just announced it's partnering with Alphabet to integrate Gemini into Siri instead of building their own LLMs. Some see that as a limitation, but I think it's actually smart. They get AI capabilities without the R&D burden, and they can layer on a premium tier later. They're calling it Apple Intelligence, and it's free for now but likely paid eventually.

Microsoft's story is different but equally compelling. The company's leveraging its enterprise dominance to monetize AI copilots across Office, ERP, and business intelligence. Copilot seat adoption jumped 160% last quarter, and daily active users went up tenfold. They also launched Agent 365, which is basically their control plane for AI agents across different platforms. Plus, Azure is growing with Foundry—their unified AI platform—and customers spending $1M+ per quarter on it grew 80%. Oh, and they own 27% of OpenAI with exclusive rights to the advanced models.

Now, Microsoft stock did take a 10% hit after Q4 earnings disappointed—capex for AI infrastructure came in hot, and Azure growth was slower than expected. But adjusted earnings still grew 24%, so the 27x valuation actually looks reasonable if you're patient.

The Apple valuation is trickier. At 33x earnings with only 10% projected annual growth, it's definitely expensive. That's worth keeping in mind.

What I'm reading from this is that Peter Thiel sees the AI monetization story playing out through these two enterprise and consumer giants rather than betting on the chip makers themselves. Whether that thesis holds up depends on how effectively both companies convert their platforms into AI revenue. Interesting bet either way.