John Alfred Paulson is an American billionaire hedge fund manager who founded Paulson & Co. in 1994. It is a New York-based fund management firm that specializes in private equity and hedge funds. Paulson graduated as valedictorian of his class with a summa cum laude distinction in finance from NYU’s College of Business and Public Administration in 1978. He also pursued an MBA at Harvard Business School as a George F. Baker Scholar, which is a prestigious recognition awarded to the top 5% of his class. It’s supported by the Sidney J. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs scholarship, which he earned in 1980. With a client base of 20, the firm’s latest 13F filing for Q4 2024 revealed ~$1.65 billion in managed 13F securities and a top 10 holdings concentration of 98.55%.
The firm is known for its expertise in event-driven arbitrage strategies, such as merger arbitrage, bankruptcy reorganizations, and other corporate events. Paulson & Co. also pursues investments in distressed debt opportunities throughout the US and Western Europe, with the help of its strategic insights and extensive market experience. John Paulson is now also bullish on gold after 15 years and expects its price to reach ~$5,000 per ounce by 2028. He is the largest shareholder in Perpetua Resources. On April 29, Reuters reported that in a recent interview, Paulson reinforced that his conviction in gold is underpinned by the analysis of central bank buying trends and rising global trade tensions. He highlighted the inclination of central banks and individuals to seek stable stores of value now and suggested that gold will therefore enhance its global standing. Paulson believes that the Western confiscation of Russia’s foreign reserve holdings following the Ukraine invasion is one of the reasons behind the anticipated appreciation of gold prices.
That being said, we’re here with a list of billionaire John Paulson’s 10 stocks with huge upside potential.
A businessman examining a portfolio of stocks and bonds as he plans his next move.
Our Methodology
To compile the list of billionaire John Paulson’s 10 stocks with huge upside potential, we sifted through Q4 2024 13F filings of Paulson & Co. from Insider Monkey. From these filings, we checked each stock’s upside potential from CNN and ranked the stocks in ascending order of this upside potential. We have also added Paulson & Co.’s stake in each company and the hedge fund sentiment around each stock.
Note: All data was sourced on May 2.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
Billionaire John Paulson’s 10 Stocks with Huge Upside Potential
10. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Paulson & Co.’s Stake: $1.90 million
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 234
Average Upside Potential as of May 2: 23.99%
Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is a technology company that offers products and platforms through its Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. Google Services provides popular tools like Search, YouTube, and Android, while Google Cloud delivers AI infrastructure and enterprise solutions.
The company’s Google Cloud is experiencing strong demand for its solutions, particularly in AI infrastructure and agents. This was highlighted at Cloud Next, where more than 500 companies shared their positive business outcomes from partnering with Google Cloud. In Q1 2025, Google Cloud made $12.3 billion in revenue, which was up 28% year-over-year due to the performance across the segment’s core offerings and its AI products.
BofA Securities recently maintained a Buy rating on Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stock. Later on April 25, BMO Capital analyst Brian Pitz also reiterated his bullish stance on the stock. The analyst highlighted that the AI overviews in search, which were introduced recently, are being adopted quickly and drove this sentiment. AI overviews now reach over 1.5 billion users per month. This reflects a 50% increase in users since October 2024.
Oakmark Equity and Income Fund stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was the top contributor during the quarter. Despite ongoing litigation with the Department of Justice in its antitrust case, the U.S.-headquartered interactive media and services company’s stock price rose after posting solid third-quarter earnings. In the Search division, the company generated low-teens year-over-year revenue growth and management highlighted that they’re seeing strong user engagement with their new AI Overviews feature. The biggest upside surprise came from the Cloud division, where revenue growth accelerated to 35% and margins reached a record of 17%. This performance was driven by client demand for AI Infrastructure and Generative AI Solutions as well as core Google Cloud Platform (GCP) products. We continue to believe Alphabet is a collection of great businesses that can unlock further value over the long term through its world-class AI capabilities.”
9. Equinox Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:EQX)
Paulson & Co.’s Stake: $12.55 million
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 20
Average Upside Potential as of May 2: 25.41%
Equinox Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:EQX) acquires, explores, develops, and operates mineral properties in the Americas. It primarily explores gold and silver deposits. It holds interest in properties in California, Mexico, Brazil, and Canada.
The company made $575 million in Q4 2024 revenue, which marked an improvement of 93.08% year-over-year. This was partly driven by 214,000 ounces of gold production. Equinox sold 218,000 ounces at an average price of $2,636 per ounce in this quarter. Despite facing higher costs of $1,458 per ounce, the company saw its adjusted EBITDA jump to $218 million. The net income reached $28 million.
Equinox Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:EQX) also managed to pay off $180 million in debt and finished the full year 2024 with $239 million in cash on hand. The company is positioned for growth because of its $5.7 billion merger with Calibre Mining, as well, which was announced in February 2025. This deal will create a diverse gold producer focused on the US, operating under the name New Equinox Gold. The merger makes it Canada’s second-largest gold producer.
Massif Capital made the following comment about Equinox Gold Corp. (NYSE:EQX) in its Q1 2023 investor letter:
“Equinox Gold Corp. (NYSE:EQX) was our best-performing investment during the first quarter, returning 57%, outperforming the broader gold sector as measured by the GDX and GDXJ by more than 40% and outperforming gold by roughly 50%. The outperformance was not driven by fundamental factors at the company but rather by a combination of sector sentiment and a beta to the gold price of 3.1. We believe that fundamental factors, specifically the conclusion of construction and eventual ramp-up of the Greenstone mine during the first half of next year, represent potent catalysts for EQX, but this quarter’s appreciation was not fundamentally driven.
While we are pleased with the excellent performance during the first quarter, we would be remiss if we did not point out that the stock remains well below the high of roughly $13.50 achieved in 2020, a price at which we owned the stock. While we are in the black on the position despite a 62% fall from the stock peak, our failure to exit the position at that time remains a painful portfolio management misstep…” (Please click here to read the full text)
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