There's little question that the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) has lit a fire under Wall Street. The multitrillion-dollar global opportunity AI brings to the table has helped lift Wall Street's major stock indexes to new heights.
But AI isn't the only hot trend that's encouraging investors to open their wallets. Excitement surrounding stock splits in brand-name businesses has stoked optimism on Wall Street.
A stock split is an event that allows a publicly traded company to cosmetically alter its share price and outstanding share count by the same factor. These changes are cosmetic in the sense that they have no impact on a company's market cap or operating performance.
Image source: Getty Images.
Stock-split stocks have been particularly popular with some of Wall Street's savviest billionaire money managers in recent years. We know this because institutional investors with at least $100 million in assets under management are required to file Form 13F with the Securities and Exchange Commission every quarter. A 13F allows investors to track the stocks that Wall Street's brightest fund managers have been buying and selling.
Based on the latest round of 13F filings, which detail trading activity for the September-ended quarter, billionaires have been piling into two stock-split stocks for 2026.
Netflix
Among the five brand-name companies to announce and complete a stock split this year, none was more of a blockbuster than streaming services provider Netflix (NFLX 0.11%). The content titan undertook a 10-for-1 forward split in mid-November, which lowered its share price at the time from around $1,100 to closer to $110.
Companies that need to lower their share price to make it more nominally affordable for retail investors who can't purchase fractional shares with their broker are almost always out-executing and out-innovating their peers. This is the case with Netflix, and it's precisely why billionaires have been piling in.
According to 13Fs for the September-ended quarter, billionaires Ole Andreas Halvorsen of Viking Global Investors and Chase Coleman of Tiger Global Management opened new stakes for their respective funds. Halvorsen oversaw the purchase of 5,008,120 shares of Netflix, while Coleman added 2,019,000 shares.
NASDAQ: NFLX
Key Data Points
What makes Netflix so special is its first-mover advantage in the streaming industry. No other streaming provider, including legacy networks, has come particularly close to matching the depth of Netflix's original content, which includes Stranger Things and Squid Game. This original content is pivotal in luring new subscribers, as well as retaining existing customers. It also affords Netflix a substantial degree of subscription pricing power.
However, billionaires might appreciate Netflix's out-of-the-box innovation even more than its seemingly sustainable moat in streaming. A little over three years ago, Netflix introduced an ad-supported streaming tier that was less costly than its traditional subscriptions. Since unveiling this option, 94 million people have signed up, based on data from May 2025. These are customers who might have otherwise been lost to competing services.
Netflix has also had success with its password-sharing crackdown, which began in May 2023. Requiring that accounts remain within a household has resulted in new subscribers, as well as existing accounts paying for members outside of their households. Netflix's operating results suggest that it's faced little backlash in its efforts to bolster its subscription pricing power and grow its user base.
Although it occurred after the 13F reporting period, billionaires are now likely excited about Netflix's pending cash-and-stock acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery at the equivalent of $27.75 per share (when announced). If the deal were to gain regulatory approval, Netflix would become the parent of HBO and HBO Max, as well as the Warner Bros. studio segment. Meanwhile, Discovery Global would be spun off.
Although Netflix stock isn't cheap, billionaires are clearly enamored with its competitive advantages.
Image source: Lucid Group.
Lucid Group
Whereas investors usually gravitate to companies enacting forward splits, they often shun businesses conducting reverse splits. A reverse split is designed to increase a company's share price, with the goal of avoiding delisting from a major stock exchange.
The most hyped reverse split this year is electric-vehicle (EV) manufacturer Lucid Group (LCID +0.56%), which completed a 1-for-10 reverse split in early September. This action increased its share price from around $2 to closer to $20.
Despite conducting the type of split that investors traditionally avoid, billionaire Israel Englander of Millennium Management piled in for 2026. Keeping in mind that Englander often hedges his fund's common stock positions with call and put options, Millennium's 13F shows that 4,981,728 shares of Lucid were purchased during the third quarter.
On paper, Lucid Group has been a fun story stock. It's a company that was expected to lead the way in luxury EVs with the Lucid Air, following Tesla's decision to move away from the Model S in order to mass-produce the more affordable Model 3 sedan. However, supply chain issues during and after the COVID-19 pandemic have continued to result in Lucid missing the mark.
NASDAQ: LCID
Key Data Points
When Lucid Group became a public company in 2021, its management team was forecasting 90,000 units of production in 2024. But by the time 2024 arrived, this lofty projection had been reduced to just 9,000 EVs. To make matters worse, the showroom debut of Lucid's Gravity SUV was pushed back from 2024 to 2025. Operational execution has consistently been poor.
If there's a silver lining, it's that Lucid Group is well-capitalized. A substantial investment from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has bolstered the company's coffers. It closed out the September quarter with more than $2.3 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments.
But building an EV company from the ground up to mass production is no easy task. Lucid has lost in excess of $2.4 billion from its operating activities through the first nine months of 2025, and its net loss since inception is nearing $14.8 billion. Put plainly, the company has yet to demonstrate that it can execute on its outlined strategy and generate a profit.
Billionaire Israel Englander may regret his decision to pile into Lucid ahead of 2026.
