Appaloosa LP

Background

David Tepper founded Appaloosa LP in 1993 after departing Goldman Sachs, where he ran the high-yield desk. The firm built its reputation on distressed-debt and deep-value equity investing — buying assets others were exiting in panic. Tepper is perhaps best known for his 2009 call on distressed bank preferreds, a trade that generated returns reported at over 130% for the fund that year. The approach is concentrated, high-conviction, and cyclically opportunistic rather than index-hugging. Appaloosa manages a relatively compact book compared to multi-strategy peers, which means each reported 13F position carries meaningful signal weight. The curator tag — "Tepper distressed-value" — remains the right shorthand, even as the current portfolio reflects a significant tilt toward large-cap technology.

Current Portfolio Signal

Appaloosa's disclosed equity book is heavily concentrated at the top. Amazon (AMZN) now anchors the portfolio at 15.2%, an unusually large single-name position for any fund of this profile. Micron Technology (MU) follows at 9.5%, Alphabet (GOOG) at 8.4%, and Uber (UBER) at 7.7% — meaning the top four names account for roughly 40% of reported holdings. Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) at 7.6% and Alibaba (BABA) at 7.3% add meaningful non-US semiconductor and Chinese consumer exposure. The energy…