Why Legendary Investor Druckenmiller Is Quietly Loading Up on These 2 Asia-Latin America E-Commerce Giants

Retired hedge fund manager Stan Druckenmiller just made a bold move—his Duquesne Family Office doubled down on Coupang (NYSE: CPNG) and MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI) last quarter, according to recent 13F filings. While his Amazon purchase grabbed headlines, these two lesser-known positions tell a more interesting story.

The Play: Amazon’s Playbook Goes Global

Both companies are executing the same winning formula that made Amazon unstoppable—but in markets with massive untapped potential.

Coupang: Dominating South Korea’s Fast-Lane E-Commerce

Launched in 2010, Coupang has become South Korea’s undisputed e-commerce king with $34B in annual revenue and 24.7M active users (nearly 50% of the country’s population). The secret? Same-day or next-morning delivery on everything from groceries to fashion.

Here’s what’s wild: revenue per user grew 7% YoY last quarter. But Coupang isn’t just shipping boxes—it’s building an ecosystem. Food delivery (Coupang Eats), video streaming, advertising, fintech plays, and cloud computing are all spinning up. The company recently grabbed Farfetch and just launched in Taiwan with 100%+ YoY revenue growth.

MercadoLibre: The Dark Horse with Fintech Superpowers

MercadoLibre operates across Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina dominate) with 107M customers and a jaw-dropping 49% YoY revenue growth last quarter. But here’s the kicker: its fintech arm (MercadoPago, payment processing, banking/lending) is the real growth engine, expanding at 65% YoY in constant currency.

Commerce revenue alone jumped 38% YoY. E-commerce penetration in Latin America is still way behind Asia and the US, meaning decades of runway ahead. The company’s 12% operating margin could hit 20%+ as it scales.

The Valuation Trap (And Why Druckenmiller Sees Past It)

On the surface, these stocks look expensive:

• Coupang: P/E of 132
• MercadoLibre: P/E of 50

But that’s missing the forest for the trees. These are growth-stage businesses reinvesting aggressively. The real question: what do earnings look like in 10 years?

MercadoLibre’s Math: Currently $2B annualized net income, but if margin expansion + revenue multiplication happen as expected, it could hit $10B+. Against a $100B market cap, that’s a 10x forward P/E—cheap territory.

Coupang’s Potential: Operating margin is only 2% now, but Druckenmiller’s thesis implies 10%+ upside. If revenue hits $50B+ (likely within years), a 10% margin applies to a $50B market cap = massive compression in P/E ratio, possibly even faster than MercadoLibre.

Bottom Line

Druckenmiller isn’t chasing yesterday’s mega-caps. He’s betting on two companies replicating Amazon’s dominance in emerging markets that are still in early innings. Yes, the P/E ratios look scary. But that’s exactly why legacy investors miss 10-50x opportunities.