Among the top ten holdings in Citi's third-quarter portfolio, Citi focused on significantly reducing its positions in four major U.S. tech giants: NVIDIA, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon.
According to a disclosure by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Citigroup, a Wall Street financial giant, has filed its third-quarter 13F report on U.S. stock holdings as of September 30, 2025.
Statistical data show that Citigroup's total market value of holdings in the third quarter reached approximately $224 billion, compared with about $204 billion in the previous quarter, representing a sequential increase of approximately 10%. The data shows that Citigroup added 826 new individual stocks and increased holdings in 1,833 individual stocks in its portfolio during the third quarter. Meanwhile, the financial giant reduced holdings in 3,028 individual stocks and liquidated positions in 399 individual stocks. The top ten holdings accounted for 19.48% of Citigroup’s total U.S. equity market value, reflecting a relatively high concentration in these top holdings.
Among Citi's top ten largest stock holdings in the third quarter, the firm focused on significantly reducing $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ 、 $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ 、 $Apple (AAPL.US)$ and $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ These four major U.S. technology giants, except for Apple, have significantly benefited from the unprecedented wave of AI investment since 2023. Meanwhile, Citi has increased its position in put options on the iShares Russell 2000 ETF, a benchmark for small-cap stocks, as well as in NVIDIA and $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ put options.
Citigroup's significant reduction in popular AI tech stocks as of September 30 fully echoes the recent 'AI bubble' narrative that has led to a pullback in global tech stocks. This highlights growing skepticism among Citi's top traders regarding the sustainability of the more than two-year-long AI boom, as tech giants continue to invest heavily in building AI computing infrastructure while the path to AI monetization remains highly unclear and valuations of these AI-driven tech stocks continue to rise. As global equity markets have been pulling back from all-time highs due to ongoing concerns over the 'AI bubble,' investors now have ample reason to cash out or take profits from high-valuation stocks such as NVIDIA, $Micron Technology (MU.US)$ , SK Hynix, Google, Microsoft, and $Advantest (6857.JP)$ other AI-related equities, liquidating or realizing a significant portion of their gains.
However, it is worth noting that while Citi has reduced its positions in tech giants and holds a bearish view on NVIDIA and Tesla, it has slightly increased its stake in the leader of AI ASICs, $Broadcom (AVGO.US)$ This highlights Citigroup's equity traders' positive outlook on the growth prospects of Broadcom's ASIC computing power clusters, betting that this technological approach will continue to erode NVIDIA's AI GPU market share.
Specifically, $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ remains Citigroup's largest holding, with approximately 33.39 million shares held, representing a total market value of about USD 6.2 billion and accounting for 2.78% of the investment portfolio. However, this marks a significant decrease of 28.22% in holdings compared to the previous quarter.
$iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM.US)$ put options are ranked as Citigroup's second-largest holding, with approximately 23.99 million shares held, representing a market value of about USD 5.8 billion and accounting for 2.59% of the investment portfolio, reflecting an expansion of 12.26% in holdings compared to the previous quarter.
Tech giant $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ ranks as the third-largest holding, with approximately 9.56 million shares held, representing a market value of about USD 5 billion and accounting for 2.21% of the investment portfolio, showing a decrease of 19.55% in holdings compared to the previous quarter.
$Tesla (TSLA.US)$ Put options rank fourth, with a holding of approximately 10.43 million shares, a market value of approximately USD 4.6 billion, accounting for 2.07% of the investment portfolio. The position size increased slightly by 6.84% from the previous quarter.
$Tesla (TSLA.US)$ Stock holdings rank fifth, with a position of approximately 9.58 million shares, a market value of approximately USD 4.3 billion, accounting for 1.90% of the investment portfolio. The position size increased slightly by 2.37% from the previous quarter.
Among the top ten largest holdings, the stocks ranked 6th to 10th in Citi's portfolio as of the third quarter are: $Ishares Iboxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond Etf (HYG.US)$ Put Options (HYG.US, PUT), $Apple (AAPL.US)$ 、 $Broadcom (AVGO.US)$ 、 $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ Put options and $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ . Among these, Citi significantly reduced its positions in Apple and Amazon during the third quarter, with reductions as high as 33% and 30%, respectively. In contrast, it slightly increased its position in Broadcom, making Broadcom Citi's eighth-largest holding.
Additionally, among Citi’s other key holdings, Citi aggressively increased its position in $Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ.US)$ put options during the third quarter, with an increase of up to 81%. This made the position in put options on this Nasdaq ETF become Citi’s eleventh largest holding. Citi also significantly reduced its positions in $Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$ , along with a slight reduction in its position in Meta Platforms, Facebook’s parent company. $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ The investment position is consistent with the logic of this institution significantly reducing its holdings in tech giants such as Microsoft and NVIDIA — Citi’s Q3 forecast anticipated an AI bubble panic that would lead to a significant pullback in the share prices of these tech giants, all of which have been the biggest beneficiaries of the AI investment boom since 2023.
In terms of changes in portfolio allocation, Citi's top five purchases in the third quarter were: $Ishares Iboxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond Etf (HYG.US)$ Put options on $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ Put options on $Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ.US)$ Put options on $Applovin (APP.US)$ Call options and $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ put options, which sufficiently highlight that Citi had already begun preparing in the third quarter for a significant correction in AI-related technology stocks triggered by 'AI bubble fears,' particularly through aggressively purchasing Nasdaq and NVIDIA put options.
The top five sell targets for Citi in the third quarter were: $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ , and Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook. $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ 、 $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ 、 $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ and $Apple (AAPL.US)$ This further highlights Citi's top traders' cautious stance that the AI hype will significantly cool down. It has proven correct to take some profits in these popular AI tech stocks during their highs in the third quarter.
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