Goldman Clients Cut Tech Positions by Largest Percentage in Records Dating to 2016

Hedge funds using Goldman Sachs’s prime brokerage made their largest percentage cut to technology positions in records dating to 2016 over five trading sessions through Oct. 15, even as their net exposure to the sector remained high.

Technology held a 23.5% net allocation in Goldman’s global prime brokerage book after the retreat. That placed it at the 90th percentile of its five-year history. The record concerns the size of the percentage cut, rather than a low in the remaining allocation.

Information technology led net selling during the period, with semiconductor stocks accounting for the largest dollar reduction. Hedge fund net leverage fell to 48.6%, its lowest level in a year. Net leverage is the difference between funds’ long and short positions, providing a measure of their overall market exposure.

The repositioning overlapped with a 5.5% decline in the Nasdaq-100 for the week ended Oct. 16. Goldman’s global fundamental long-short clients lost 2.9% in the week through Oct. 15, though they remained up 14.3% year to date. The index decline and client performance cover weeks with different end dates.

Hedge fund clients had taken profits in semiconductor stocks in May while their exposure to the AI theme remained high. The October figures cover technology positions more broadly across Goldman’s global prime brokerage book.

Earlier, hedge funds’ net U.S. exposure to the Magnificent Seven reached a record 22%, while their net U.S. exposure to semiconductor stocks stood at 12%. Those figures track specific groups of U.S. stocks. Goldman’s 23.5% figure measures the global book’s net allocation to the wider technology sector.

Hedge funds had also reversed their cumulative net buying of global AI stocks since early 2025. That longer-term shift in AI stock purchases covers a different period and group of stocks from the five-session technology cut.