Sanders Capital 13F Portfolio · Lewis Sanders

The biggest buys table makes one thing unambiguous: Sanders is pushing chips to the center of the table on AI infrastructure and scalable demand franchises, not on second‑tier beta.

On the AI side, the move is dramatic. They boost Nvidia by +216.6%, lifting it to 4.52% of the book and adding about $3.09B in exposure, while a 29.9% increase in Microsoft adds roughly $1.38B and a brand‑new Broadcom position comes in at 1.95% or about $1.95B. This is a clear cluster bet on the full AI stack: Microsoft for monetization and distribution, Nvidia and Broadcom for the semis and networking plumbing underneath it.

In consumer, they aren’t nibbling — they are underwriting a robust travel-and-experiences cycle. Booking explodes by +2,376.0% to 1.32% of the portfolio with roughly $1.27B of fresh capital, while new stakes in Disney at 1.33% and Royal Caribbean at 0.83% together add another ~$2.15B to what is effectively a global discretionary-demand basket. Ulta’s 29.0% increase and a larger Procter & Gamble position by value (despite a small share trim) round out a thesis that premium, brand‑anchored consumer spend will prove remarkably resilient.

Elsewhere, conviction creeps up in cash‑generative, system‑critical financials and defense. CME Group gets a 21.8% lift even though it sits slightly below cost, signaling patience with exchange economics, and Lockheed Martin jumps +83.5% into a 1.07% position, joining RTX, General Dynamics, and Northrop as a sturdier defense spine behind the growth book. McCormick’s new 0.41% stake looks like a targeted quality‑staple add, not a wholesale rotation into defensives.

The funding side is just as intentional as the buys. Sanders is taking gains where the thesis is fully played out or where exposure has become redundant relative to higher‑conviction names.

The standout is Seagate: they slash the position by -73.0%, cutting an estimated $9.08B in exposure while still leaving a 3.37% stake worth about $3.37B. With the position up roughly 1,002.4% versus cost, this looks like classic profit‑harvesting on a storage cyclical that has less direct leverage to AI than Nvidia or Broadcom. Taiwan Semi (still the largest single holding at 12.51%) is trimmed by -6.8% and Alphabet by -4.4%, both with enormous embedded gains; these are not thesis reversals, they are risk management around oversized winners.

The second funding source is broad market beta. SPY is cut -30.3% (about $661.7M out), and VEU falls -21.4% (roughly $179.2M), reducing the unclassified ETF sleeve from 3.0% to 2.18%. That capital clearly migrates into the hand‑picked AI and consumer names they believe will outrun the index.

Finally, there’s quiet pruning across more traditional defensives and financials. Pepsi is reduced by -70.1%, several bank positions (HSBC, Truist, Shinhan, and smaller European banks) shrink modestly, and they clip small percentages from Apple, Amazon, and health-care insurers like UnitedHealth and Elevance. Taken together, this is not a flight from defensives, but a tightening of the roster to those exposures they view as truly irreplaceable in the portfolio.

The sector chart confirms what the position-level moves imply: Sanders is slimming down undifferentiated tech and ETFs to make room for more targeted consumer and defense exposure around its AI core.

Technology falls from 57.41% to 53.78%, but that headline overstates the “de‑risking.” Within tech they are trading down the quality spectrum: trimming Apple, Alphabet, Seagate, and Applied Materials at the margin, while scaling Nvidia, Microsoft, and a new Broadcom stake. The net effect is a more concentrated technology sleeve that is explicitly skewed to semis and hyperscale software.

Consumer Discretionary rises from 13.77% to 17.37% as travel, experiences, and beauty get real capital. Amazon remains a 7.01% anchor, but now sits alongside larger airline stakes (Delta, United), a new 1.33% Disney position, Royal Caribbean at 0.83%, an expanded Booking at 1.32%, and a 29.0% bigger Ulta. This is a bet that higher‑income discretionary wallets hold up and that experiential spend remains the last thing to be cut.

Finance edges up from 5.13% to 5.39% on adds to Bank of America and CME, while Industrials climb from 4.57% to 5.02% via defense names like Lockheed. Health care stays roughly flat at 12.51%, and Consumer Staples doubles from 0.24% to 0.48% on the McCormick addition despite the Pepsi trim. The real rotation is away from the 3.0% ETF sleeve (now 2.18%) and into precisely chosen beneficiaries of AI capex and a still‑healthy global consumer.

Put together, this quarter’s repositioning suggests Sanders wants to own both sides of the AI trade: the hardware and software that monetize the capex boom, and the consumer and travel names that benefit if that productivity wave props up demand rather than crushes it.

On the growth side, the cluster of Nvidia, Broadcom, Taiwan Semi, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta — all in the top tier of positions — is an explicit statement that AI remains the core engine of the book. Trims in legacy tech and storage look less like skepticism and more like housekeeping to keep risk budget available for names whose competitive positions are still widening.

On the cyclical side, the step‑function increase in travel and leisure exposure via Booking, Disney, Royal Caribbean, the airlines, and Ulta reflects a willingness to embrace volatility in exchange for operating leverage to upside in global demand. At the same time, measured adds to Bank of America, CME, and defense contractors show they are not abandoning ballast; they want cash‑flow resilience that can fund the holding period if the cycle disappoints.

Looking ahead, expect Sanders to keep pressing this barbell. If AI infrastructure keeps compounding and the consumer remains intact, this portfolio is built to capture both margin expansion in the digital economy and volume recovery in real‑world services. If volatility spikes, the trims in ETFs and staples suggest they’ll fund further upgrades from broad exposure into individual names where they believe their research edge is most pronounced.