* Institutions favored AI infrastructure, data center,

and utility stocks, with minimal selling reported

* Investors were more selective with 'Magnificent 7' AI

giants, sellers narrowly outnumbered buyers

* Semiconductor stocks saw strong institutional buying,

while software-as-a-service stocks faced net selling

By Suzanne McGee and Akash Sriram

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, May 15 (Reuters) -

I nstitutional investors took new positions in semiconductor

stocks ranging from Intel ( INTC ) to Micron during the

first quarter of the year, positioning them to profit from a

red-hot rally that extended into the second quarter, according

to a Reuters overview of filings from some 6,600 hedge funds,

pension funds, college funds and others with the U.S. Securities

and Exchange Commission.

Nearly 5,000 of all those investors that had filed their

quarterly 13-F filings by late afternoon Friday reported they

were buyers of one or more of 17 semiconductor firms tracked by

Reuters.

One of the most aggressively purchased chipmakers was

Micron, whose stock has soared 154% so far this year as demand

has boomed for memory chips amidst the AI buildout. A total of

2,440 institutions reported taking new positions in Micron,

including Rockefeller Capital Management and Schroder Investment

Management.

On Micron's heels was Intel ( INTC ), a turnaround story whose stock

has boomed 195% year to date. Tiger Global Management disclosed

that it initiated a position in Intel ( INTC ) in the first quarter,

along with Neuberger Berman and MetLife Asset Management.

These filings with the SEC offer a glimpse into the

portfolios of ​large institutional investors, from hedge funds

to pension funds and endowments. Major institutional investors

must report any changes made to their portfolio and its

composition to the SEC within 45 days of the end of each

calendar quarter. The data obtained by Reuters from the SEC's

database reflect those firms that had submitted their filings as

of late afternoon on Friday. The data does not capture changes

to their portfolios they may have made since March 31.

Northern Trust emerged as a big investor across the

semiconductor space, initiating new positions in Intel ( INTC ) and

Micron as well as Seagate Technology ( STX ) and Western Digital ( WDC )

during the first quarter. Those stocks have soared 188%

and 179%, respectively, so far this year..

AI INFRASTRUCTURE

Institutions also were eager buyers of other stocks whose

fate is closely linked to the rollout and adoption of AI during

the first three months of the year. More than 4,000 of them

added to their existing holdings or initiated new positions in a

group of nine companies that are big players in the AI

infrastructure arena, including Oracle, Arista Networks ( ANET )

and Vertiv ( VRT ). Only 164 of the institutions

reported selling space during the quarter.

Data center companies, a group whose fate is tied to AI's

insatiable demand for energy, also saw big buying interest on

the part of institutional investors, as well as utilities, which

will be generating much of that power. As of late Friday, 13-F

filings show no institutions reduced or liquidated their

exposure to utilities during the first quarter, while nearly

3,800 reported they added to or initiated new positions in that

sector.

Meanwhile, the data appear to show that institutional

investors are being more selective when it comes to the

"Magnificent Seven" AI giants - a cohort that also includes Meta

and Microsoft ( MSFT ), amid ongoing uncertainty during

the first quarter about whether they could sustain the pace of

spending on AI and their growth. Sellers outnumbered buyers by a

narrow margin during the period, according to the 13-F data.

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman's Pershing Square hedge

fund opened a new position in ​tech giant Microsoft ( MSFT ) after its

stock price dropped recently, selling his long-term holding in

Google parent Alphabet ‌to help pay for it.

Among the 143 investors who initiated a position in Palantir ( PLTR )

, another high-profile technology player, was Mubadala

Capital, the sovereign wealth fund of the UAE. It acquired a

small position valued at $9.9 million during the first quarter,

according to its filing.

Mubadala also initiated a position in Shopify ( SHOP ), one of

the software-as-a-service stocks slammed during the first

quarter by fears that AI will disrupt their business models and

derail their profitability. But for a group of 20 U.S.-listed

stocks in that category, Reuters found that overall,

institutions were more prone to sell than to buy amidst the

carnage, with 397 liquidating one or more positions.