The hedge fund billionaires listed below sold shares of Nvidia (NVDA 0.12%) during the fourth quarter, ahead of the recent stock market crash. They also purchased SPDR Gold Shares (GLD -0.97%), an exchange-traded fund that soared 166% in the last decade.

• Israel Englander of Millennium Management sold 1.1 million shares of Nvidia, reducing his position by 10%. And he bought 185,700 shares of the SPDR Gold Shares ETF, increasing his position by 280%.
• Paul Tudor Jones of Tudor Investment sold 501,700 shares of Nvidia, reducing his position by 37%. And he bought 17,300 shares of the SPDR Gold Shares ETF, increasing his position by 13%.

Here's what investors should know about Nvidia and the SPDR Gold Shares ETF.

Nvidia: A chipmaker that dominates the market for AI accelerators

Nvidia specializes in accelerated computing, a discipline that uses specialized hardware and software to speed up complex data center workloads like scientific computing and artificial intelligence (AI). It is best known for its graphics processing units (GPUs), also known as AI accelerators, where it holds 84% market share. But the company also provides adjacent hardware and software.

Nvidia has recently struggled against two headwinds. First, Chinese start-up DeepSeek trained sophisticated large language models with less computing power than U.S. rivals. The market assumed Nvidia GPU sales would falter as AI infrastructure spending slowed. But that has not happened. Instead, Nvidia expects demand to rise as cost efficiencies let more businesses adopt AI, and reasoning models create a need for even more computing power.

Second, the Trump administration recently hit Nvidia with export restrictions on its H20 GPUs in China, which could cost the company as much as $18 billion in revenue this year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. But Nvidia still dominates the AI accelerator market, which is forecast to increase at 29% annually through 2030, according to Grand View Research.

Those headwinds may explain why hedge fund managers Israel Englander and Paul Tudor Jones sold shares of Nvidia in the fourth quarter. However, readers should bear in mind neither billionaire completely exited their position, so they still have exposure to the chipmaker in their portfolios.

Importantly, despite headwinds related to competition and export restrictions, Wall Street estimates Nvidia's earnings will increase 46% in fiscal 2026, which ends in January. That makes the current valuation of 36 times earnings look rather cheap. Investors with a time horizon of at least three years can buy a position in this stock now.

SPDR Gold Shares: An ETF that has crushed the S&P 500 this year

SPDR Gold Shares tracks the price of gold bullion. The fund is managed by State Street and owns about 946 metric tons of gold, which is worth more than $100 billion at the current spot price. The SPDR Gold Shares ETF lets investors participate in the gold market without the hassle of buying, storing, and insuring physical bullion.

"Gold has demonstrated a low and negative correlation to many financial asset indices over time and has a track record of providing a hedge during periods of large market drawdowns, systemic risk, and geopolitical volatility," according to State Street. Indeed, gold tends to outperform the S&P 500 (a benchmark for the U.S. stock market) during bear markets, but it tends to underperform during bull markets.

• Bear markets: Gold returned an average of 6% during the last four bear markets, while the S&P 500 declined by an average of 36%.
• Bull markets: Gold returned an average of 61% during the last four bull markets, while the S&P 500 returned an average of 150%.

The precious metal has crushed the U.S. stock market in 2025. The SPDR Gold Shares ETF has advanced 28% year to date, while the S&P 500 has declined 6%. Economic uncertainty is the reason for that discrepancy. Many economists have raised their recession probability forecasts as the Trump administration has sown chaos with its trade policies. So, investors have moved away from risk assets like stocks and toward safe-haven assets like gold.

If President Trump's tariffs push the S&P 500 into a bear market, gold will likely continue to outperform. But if the administration reaches trade deals with a sufficient number of foreign countries, the current bull market could regain momentum, in which case gold would likely underperform. That makes the SPDR Gold Shares ETF a smart buy for any investor concerned about a more substantial drawdown in the S&P 500.