Quick Read
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Tepper’s complete exit from SNDK and GLW has been validated by subsequent price action, with both stocks dropping 28% and 35% respectively since his Q2 close.
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Tepper held $1.1 billion in Micron and added to Baidu, betting on highest-conviction single names over broad memory and China baskets.
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Defense is the only theme Tepper exited without a replacement, making his RTX and L3Harris walkout the clearest directional bet of the quarter.
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David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management closed out 12 positions entirely in the Q2 2026 13F filed August 14, 2026, and the pattern beneath the list reveals a fund narrowing sprawling thematic bets down to single-name conviction plays.
The complete exit list, as of June 30, 2026: SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) 281,250 shares, Corning (NYSE:GLW) 1,129,500 shares, PDD Holdings (NASDAQ:PDD) 900,000 shares, JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) 1,305,000 shares, L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) 198,000 shares, RTX (NYSE:RTX) 342,000 shares, Ball Corporation 837,000 shares, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) 90,000 shares, the KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (NYSEARCA:KWEB) 1,080,000 shares, UnitedHealth 90,000 shares, Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) 2,700,000 shares, and Deutsche Bank 257,616 shares.
Five of these deserve a closer look.
Tepper Trims Memory
First, the memory move. Tepper’s 2026 track record was built on chips. Bloomberg reported Appaloosa returned 32% in the first half of 2026 driven by memory-chip makers. Yet he walked entirely out of SanDisk, a stock up 591.34% year-to-date through August 14 and boasting a 5-quarter EPS beat streak with Q4 FY2026 revenue of $8.97 billion and gross margin of 84.6%. Tepper’s exit from SanDisk would have looked brialliant as the stock imploded throughout July, but shares have rebounded in recent weeks. SanDisk issued a long-term framework this year that forecasts non-GAAP gross margins at 80% in the 2028 to 2030 period.
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Tepper Exits Defense Stocks and Two Chinese Positions
Second, the paired defense walkout. RTX and L3Harris both went to zero shares held in the same quarter despite RTX raising FY2026 EPS guidance to $7.10-$7.25 and L3Harris signing a seven-year THAAD/PAC-3 framework worth approximately $12 billion of future production revenue.
Third, the China dismantling. He exited PDD, JD.com, and the KWEB ETF, and trimmed Alibaba by 1,465,000 shares.
What He Kept Tells You More Than What He Sold
Yet, Tepper did not completely abandon memory. He trimmed Micron by 690,000 shares but still held 975,000 shares valued at $1,125,432,750, one of his largest disclosed positions. Micron (NASDAQ:MU) offers 16 Strategic Customer Agreements with $100 billion in RPO and floor prices delivering margins “well above our peak quarterly margins in any past cycle.” Similarly, on China: he added 602,900 shares to Baidu, taking that stake to 1,295,000 shares valued at $148,005,550. Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) offers one of the cleanest AI narratives in China, with GPU Cloud revenue up 184% year-over-year and AI-powered business crossing 52% of Baidu General Business revenue. Defense is the outlier: no survivor, no substitute.
A Mixed Bag Since Q2
It appears to be a mixed bag on Tepper’s Q2 moves. Moves that look good right now include SanDisk trading at $1,641.11, still off its $2,273.73 price on June 30. GLW is down 35.02% since June 30. RTX, by contrast, has rallied 17.9% since the quarter closed, and LYFT is up 19.64%. Baidu is down 9.29% since June 30th.
The Takeaway
This is a 13F. Point-in-time holdings as of June 30, 2026, disclosed roughly 45 days later, and not necessarily current positions. Funds sell for tax, liquidity, and portfolio-construction reasons, so an exit does not equal a bearish call. The actionable signal is structural: Tepper is still holding memory but has lightened his bet on the space. Meanwhile, he’s completely exited his defense positions.
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