ValueAct Deployed $3.9B in One Quarter and Doubled to 16 Holdings: Inside Morfit's $7B Activist Reload With $783M Amazon and a Live Entertainment Empire

TL;DR

• AUM surged 125% from $3.13B to $7.03B in a single quarter — the largest QoQ jump in ValueAct's available filing history
• Holdings doubled from 8 to 16 with 9 new positions opened and only 1 exit (Mr. Cooper Group)
• Amazon entered at $783M (11.2% of portfolio) as ValueAct's second-largest holding behind Salesforce
• BlackRock entered at $744M (10.6%) — a $744M bet on the world's largest asset manager
• Rocket Companies stake surged 55% to $762M and 39.4M shares, following ValueAct's 13D activist campaign filed in May 2025
• Live entertainment complex: $564M across Liberty Live (LLYVK/LLYVA) + Live Nation (LYV) — a sophisticated tracking stock discount arbitrage
• Top-5 concentration collapsed from 84.5% to 53.7% — a 30.8-point de-concentration as capital was spread across new positions
• AI-platform thesis: 44.8% of the portfolio is now in AI-enabled platform companies (CRM, AMZN, META, MDB, TOST)

The Biggest Quarter in ValueAct's Recent History

ValueAct Holdings just filed the most dramatic single-quarter transformation in its available history. Mason Morfit, the firm's co-CEO and CIO, took a portfolio that ended Q3 2025 at $3.13B across just 8 concentrated positions and turned it into a $7.03B, 16-position portfolio by December 31. That's $3.9B deployed in 90 days — a 125% AUM increase that dwarfs any other quarter in the fund's 20-quarter filing history visible on our platform.

This isn't noise. ValueAct is one of the most deliberate institutional investors in existence. The firm has held 56 public company board seats over 23 years, and Morfit personally sits on the Salesforce (CRM) board — where he helped drive margins from 18% to 32%. When ValueAct doubles its capital base and position count in a single quarter, it's a signal worth studying in detail.

Filing Snapshot

Metric	Q3 2025	Q4 2025	Change
13F AUM	$3.13B	$7.03B	+$3.90B (+124.6%)
Holdings Count	8	16	+8 (doubled)
Top-1 Weight	21.9% (CRM)	11.3% (CRM)	−10.6pp
Top-5 Weight	84.5%	53.7%	−30.8pp
Filing Date	Nov 14, 2025	Feb 17, 2026	—
Report Period	Sep 30, 2025	Dec 31, 2025	—

What $3.9B Bought: The 9 New Positions

ValueAct opened 9 new positions in Q4 while exiting only one (Mr. Cooper Group, which is being acquired by Rocket Companies). The new entries fall into three clear thematic buckets:

Bucket 1: Platform Companies With AI Optionality

Amazon (AMZN) — $783.5M (11.15%): The second-largest position in the portfolio. Amazon's combination of AWS cloud dominance, AI model hosting (Bedrock), and consumer-side AI integration (Rufus, Alexa+) makes it exactly the kind of AI-native platform ValueAct targets. Morfit has deep experience evaluating how technology incumbents integrate AI from his board seats at Microsoft and Salesforce — he's applying that playbook here.

Roblox (RBLX) — $484.2M (6.89%): ValueAct increased its Roblox stake by over 340% during Q4 2024 and continued building. Roblox fits the pattern: a platform business with massive user engagement (over 85 million daily active users) that is rapidly integrating AI for content creation and moderation. The monetization curve is early.

Toast (TOST) — $284.6M (4.05%): Restaurant management platform with 127,000+ locations. Like Rocket Companies in mortgages, Toast is the tech-native leader in a fragmented, traditional industry ripe for AI-driven operational transformation.

Bucket 2: Financial Infrastructure

BlackRock (BLK) — $743.9M (10.59%): A $744M bet on the world's largest asset manager. BlackRock's Aladdin platform, iShares dominance, and recent infrastructure acquisition strategy (GIP) position it as the institutional operating system for global capital. At $1,070/share and ~20x forward earnings, Morfit appears to see a compounding machine with secular tailwinds from passive investing, private markets, and AI-powered portfolio management.

Bucket 3: Live Entertainment — The Anti-Digital Play

Live Nation (LYV) / Liberty Live (LLYVK) / Liberty Live (LLYVA) — $563.6M combined (8.02%): This is ValueAct's most structurally complex trade. The firm holds $117.3M in Live Nation common stock directly, plus $446.3M across Liberty Live's tracking stocks (LLYVK and LLYVA), which represent Liberty Media's 30% ownership stake in Live Nation.

ValueAct filed a 13D on Liberty Live in February 2025 with a 5.51% stake at an average cost of $51.17/share. The thesis: Liberty Live trades at a steep discount to its Live Nation NAV, and Liberty Media has announced plans to spin off the tracking stock — the same playbook they used with Sirius XM. ValueAct is betting the discount compresses on spinoff and eventual merger with LYV, while also benefiting from Live Nation's underlying business growth as live performances become the dominant monetization channel for artists in the streaming era.

The DOJ's May 2024 antitrust suit against Live Nation/Ticketmaster actually created ValueAct's entry opportunity. The firm's thesis: even a forced breakup would leave shareholders with two strong standalone businesses. A behavioral remedy (more likely) would remove the overhang entirely.

Disney (DIS) — $350.2M (4.98%): ValueAct initially built a Disney stake in late 2023 during the Hollywood strikes, entered a formal information-sharing arrangement with Disney's board in January 2024, and supported Disney against Nelson Peltz's proxy fight. The Q4 2025 position at 3.08M shares represents the continuation of this long-term engagement. Morfit brings media transformation expertise from Spotify, New York Times, and 21st Century Fox to Disney's streaming and parks strategy.

Simpson Manufacturing (SSD) — $237.7M (3.38%): The outlier. Simpson makes structural connectors and building products — no AI thesis here. This is a classic ValueAct infrastructure-adjacent bet: dominant niche player with pricing power, secular tailwinds from building codes requiring stronger connections, and a potential target for operational improvements.

Existing Positions: Conviction Doubled Down

ValueAct didn't just add new names. The firm significantly increased several existing positions:

Stock	Q3 Shares	Q4 Shares	Change	Q4 Value
Rocket Companies (RKT)	25,395,627	39,380,652	+55.1%	$762.4M
Meta Platforms (META)	768,674	1,047,974	+36.3%	$691.8M
Visa (V)	1,565,850	1,718,250	+9.7%	$602.6M
Salesforce (CRM)	2,898,509	2,994,509	+3.3%	$793.3M
MongoDB (MDB)	2,118,200	1,406,800	−33.6%	$590.4M
Insight Enterprises (NSIT)	2,271,739	1,216,592	−46.4%	$99.1M
CBRE Group (CBRE)	234,591	234,591	unchanged	$37.7M

The Rocket Companies increase is the most telling. ValueAct filed a 13D on RKT in May 2025 with a 9.99% stake, making it an activist position. The thesis centers on Rocket's pending $9.4B acquisition of Mr. Cooper Group — which is why ValueAct simultaneously exited its Mr. Cooper position (the swap from target to acquirer). Morfit sees Rocket as the tech-native winner in a fragmented mortgage industry, with AI integration potential analogous to what Salesforce achieved with Agentforce. The 55% share increase from 25.4M to 39.4M shares signals deepening conviction in the activist campaign.

The MongoDB trim is notable — shares decreased 33.6% from 2.12M to 1.41M — though the value actually rose from $367M to $590M due to MDB's price appreciation. This looks like disciplined profit-taking as MDB rallied rather than a loss of conviction.

The Insight Enterprises trim is more significant: a 46.4% share reduction with value dropping from $258M to $99M. NSIT was acquired by a PE consortium for $8.2B; ValueAct is likely winding down as the deal nears closing.

The Concentration Collapse: From Ultra-Concentrated to Diversified Activist

ValueAct's identity is extreme concentration. The firm typically runs 8-15 positions and maintains board seats in half of them. But Q4 2025 represents a structural shift in how that concentration plays out.

In Q3, the top-5 holdings represented 84.5% of the portfolio — classic ValueAct territory. By Q4, the top-5 dropped to 53.7%. No single position exceeds 11.3%. The portfolio went from “five big bets” to “six even-weighted core positions plus ten supporting roles.”

This de-concentration isn't a sign of uncertainty — it's a sign of opportunity breadth. Morfit clearly identified enough conviction-level opportunities to deploy $3.9B across 9 new positions simultaneously. When the most deliberate activist investor in the market deploys capital this broadly, it suggests he sees a generational window in the intersection of AI platform economics and undervalued business transformation stories.

Historical Context: The Recovery Arc

To fully appreciate Q4 2025, look at ValueAct's AUM trajectory. The fund peaked at $8.87B in Q4 2021, then steadily declined through 2022's rate hikes and 2023-2024's narrowing market. By Q3 2025, AUM had collapsed to $3.13B — the lowest in five years and barely a third of the peak.

Then Q4 happened. The $7.03B total represents the highest AUM since Q1 2022. While some of this is market appreciation (META, CRM, and MDB all had strong Q4 runs), the majority is new capital deployment. ValueAct appears to have been stockpiling dry powder during 2023-2024 and unleashed it all at once in Q4 2025.

The Unified AI Thesis: Morfit's Playbook Decoded

If you strip away the surface-level diversity, ValueAct's Q4 2025 portfolio tells a coherent story about how Mason Morfit thinks AI transforms business models:

1. Technology enablers (companies building AI infrastructure): Amazon (AWS/Bedrock), Salesforce (Agentforce), Meta (ad optimization), MongoDB (developer tools)
2. Technology adopters (traditional businesses AI can transform): Rocket Companies (mortgages), Toast (restaurants), BlackRock (asset management), Disney (streaming/parks)
3. AI-immune assets (businesses protected from digital disruption): Live Nation/Liberty Live (live events), Simpson Manufacturing (physical construction), Visa (payment rails)

The key insight: Morfit has board-level experience on both sides of AI — at Salesforce (builder) and at companies like Spotify and Disney (adopter). He's one of the only institutional investors with direct boardroom exposure to how AI transforms enterprise software AND how legacy media/consumer businesses can use AI to fundamentally restructure their economics. The Q4 portfolio reflects that dual perspective.

What Analysts Might Misread

1. “ValueAct is becoming a generalist fund”

Wrong. Going from 8 to 16 holdings looks like diversification, but look closer: 6 of the top 7 positions are between 9% and 11.3% weight. This is a concentrated portfolio that happens to have more positions — every single one is a conviction-level bet, not a hedging operation.

2. “The Mr. Cooper exit signals retreat from fintech”

The opposite. ValueAct sold Mr. Cooper because Rocket Companies is acquiring it in an all-stock deal. Exiting Mr. Cooper and increasing RKT by 55% is the same thesis — just expressed through the acquirer rather than the target.

3. “The Liberty Live / Live Nation overlap is redundant”

It's deliberate. Owning both the tracking stock (at a discount to NAV) and the underlying common stock is a structural arbitrage. ValueAct filed a 13D on Liberty Live and is actively pushing for the spinoff/merger pathway that would close the discount. The dual ownership maximizes optionality across both outcomes.

4. “$7B AUM means ValueAct is back to peak form”

Not yet. The 2021 peak was $8.87B. And AUM alone doesn't tell the story — position count does. In 2021, $8.87B was spread across 12-13 positions. Today, $7.03B is spread across 16. The average position size is actually smaller, which means Morfit identified more opportunities than usual.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did ValueAct's portfolio more than double in one quarter?

The 125% AUM increase from $3.13B to $7.03B reflects massive new capital deployment — ValueAct opened 9 new positions worth approximately $3.4B. The firm appears to have been building cash reserves through 2023-2024 and deployed them aggressively in Q4 2025 as valuations aligned with its AI-transformation thesis.

What is ValueAct's investment in Live Nation and Liberty Live about?

ValueAct holds $564M across three tickers: Live Nation (LYV) directly, plus Liberty Live's tracking stocks (LLYVK and LLYVA) which represent Liberty Media's 30% stake in Live Nation. The tracking stock trades at a discount to Net Asset Value. ValueAct's 13D filing on Liberty Live pushes for a spinoff and eventual merger — the same playbook Liberty used with Sirius XM — which would close the discount and unlock value.

Why is Mason Morfit building an activist position in Rocket Companies?

ValueAct filed a 13D on Rocket Companies (RKT) in May 2025 with a 9.99% stake. The thesis: Rocket is the tech-native leader in a fragmented $12 trillion mortgage market, and AI integration (similar to what Salesforce achieved with Agentforce) can dramatically improve underwriting speed, cost structure, and customer experience. The pending Mr. Cooper acquisition will triple Rocket's public float, attracting institutional investors who previously avoided the stock due to low liquidity.

What does ValueAct's BlackRock bet signal about the asset management industry?

The $744M BlackRock position (10.59% of portfolio) is ValueAct's largest new buy in Q4. BlackRock's Aladdin platform, iShares ETF franchise, and recent infrastructure expansion (GIP acquisition) position it as the dominant financial infrastructure platform. Morfit may see parallels to his Microsoft thesis — a platform company with compounding advantages that the market undervalues due to its sheer scale and complexity.

Is ValueAct still an activist fund or is it becoming a passive hedge fund?

Firmly activist. ValueAct has active 13D filings on both Rocket Companies and Liberty Live, and maintains a formal information-sharing arrangement with Disney's board. Mason Morfit sits on Salesforce's board. The firm's model is “collaborative activism” — taking board seats or advisory roles rather than launching proxy fights. The Q4 2025 portfolio expansion doesn't change this; it just gives Morfit more levers to pull across more companies simultaneously.

How does ValueAct's Q4 2025 compare to other major activist funds this quarter?

In percentage terms, ValueAct's 125% AUM increase is among the most dramatic of any fund this filing season. For context, Elliott Investment Management nearly doubled to $22.6B, Lone Pine Capital jumped 64%, and Coatue Management rebuilt to $40B. But ValueAct's reload is qualitatively different: it's not index rotation or hedge rebalancing — it's a concentrated activist deploying $3.9B of fresh capital into hand-picked transformation stories.