Jackson Peak Capital, an investment management firm, released its first-quarter 2026 investor letter. Jackson Peak Capital employs a concentrated long/short equity approach to deliver strong absolute returns across various market conditions. A copy of the letter is available to download here. In Q1 2026, Jackson Peak returned -21.0%, net, in a challenging environment. The underperformance in Q1 was driven by an increase in tech exposure, adverse movements in certain positions, and the lack of expected catalysts. The ACWI returned -2.2%, and the HFRX Equity Hedge Index returned -1.5% during the same time. The firm expects a strong Q2 start as AI acceleration and easing geopolitical tensions favor positions. At Q1’s end, net exposure was 36%, up from 25% from Q4’s end, with confidence in AI infrastructure, energy, compute, data center buildout, and event-driven positions. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2026.
In its first-quarter 2026 investor letter, Jackson Peak Capital highlighted stocks like Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ). Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) is a leading US-based infrastructure provider for high-density colocation services and digital asset mining. On June 1, 2026, Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) closed at $28.55 per share. One-month return of Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) was 28.66%, and its shares gained 141.95% over the past 52 weeks. Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) has a market capitalization of $9.08 billion.
Jackson Peak Capital stated the following regarding Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:
“A position worth highlighting this quarter is Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ). We re-engaged with CORZ during Q1 after exiting in Q4, as the stock retraced to attractive levels just as we were looking to add to the AI infrastructure theme on the developments above. Specifically, CORZ is a beneficiary of the compute shortage as it has valuable data center co-location capacity, which is structurally short of supply heading into the remainder of 2026 as the leading AI labs and hyperscalers all look for power and shovel-ready sites.
CORZ is one of the few public companies with shovel-ready capacity at scale. It is a high-performance computing (HPC) colocation provider that pivoted from crypto mining to AI infrastructure, and the foundation of the business today is its ~590 MW contract with CoreWeave under 12-year hosting agreements, representing over $10 billion in total contracted revenue. Beyond the CoreWeave contract, CORZ has approximately 1.5 GW of total leasable power in the pipeline. Management has stated that they are in active dialogue with multiple parties and that colocation leasing agreements are expected in the near future.
Management is incentivized to diversify away from the single CoreWeave contract after the CoreWeave acquisition fell apart, and the entry valuation in Q1 was not pricing in any additional contracts. The catalyst path is one or more new colocation customers announced over the remainder of 2026, each of which should drive a re-rating as revenue grows and concentration risk declines. The primary risks are execution, the pace of new customer signings, and the broader AI spending cycle.”
Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 81 hedge fund portfolios held Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) at the end of the first quarter, up from 76 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Core Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CORZ) and shared the list of best short squeeze stocks to invest in. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2026 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
