Snapshot

  • Ticker: WIX (Nasdaq)
  • Bucket: Software in the AI Crosshairs
  • Q1 2026 position: 650,414 shares, $58.6M, 1.17% of 13F — not top-20 (~#24)
  • HQ: Tel Aviv, Israel
  • What it does: Website and business platform for self-creators and agencies/partners — site building, commerce, payments — plus Base44, its fast-growing AI “vibe coding” app builder.

Business Overview

Wix runs a two-engine model: a Self Creators business (drag-and-drop and AI website building, subscriptions plus payments/commerce take) and a Partners business (agencies and developers building on Wix Studio), with total ARR of 1.99B with bookings of 441.6M and free cash flow of $573.0M — a genuinely cash-generative model.

The 2025 acquisition of Base44, a no-code/“vibe coding” AI app builder, changed the story. Base44 reached 150M by mid-May — roughly a year after its founding — and powered Wix’s strongest new-cohort economics in years: the Q1 2026 cohort (6.4M users including Base44) generated nearly 541.2M (up 14%), bookings 1.90B (up 15%). Management has framed 2026 as an investment year (mid-teens growth guidance, free-cash-flow margin in the low-to-mid 20s excluding acquisition costs), reportedly cutting ~1,000 jobs while raising cash-flow targets. In April 2026 Wix executed a 92/share, retiring ~17.5M shares and cutting shares outstanding to ~41.8M.

Financial Trajectory

PeriodRevenueGrowthNotes
FY2024~$1.76B~13%
FY2025$1.99B13%FCF 441.6M
Q1 2026$541.2M14%Bookings 1.90B (+15%)
FY2026 guidemid-teens % growthFCF margin low-to-mid 20s% (ex-acquisition costs)

Why Atreides Owns It

Wix is a barbell name inside the software sleeve: legacy website-building is exactly the kind of product AI could commoditize (“anything you can verify, you can automate”), but Base44 makes Wix one of the few incumbents with a credible, fast-scaling AI-native attacker of its own — 150M ARR in roughly a year is startup-grade traction inside a cash-rich incumbent. That maps onto Baker’s “life or death decision” framework as a company actually choosing to cannibalize itself, funded by $573M of free cash flow and an aggressive buyback.

Atreides entered at 104/share) and halved the position in Q1 2026 (~59M stake keeps exposure to the AI-pivot optionality at a valuation backstopped by the $92 tender.

Position History

QuarterTypeShares/NotionalValue% of 13F
Q4 2024not held
Q1 2025not held
Q2 2025not held
Q3 2025not held
Q4 2025Common1,247,457$129,598,3081.58%
Q1 2026Common650,414$58,582,7891.17%

A new ~104 to ~$90 implied. Consistent with Atreides’ pattern of sizing software entries aggressively and then resizing fast on new information rather than averaging down.

Risks

  • Core commoditization: AI site/app generation is precisely the category every foundation-model lab and startup is attacking; Base44’s edge may prove temporary as vibe-coding tools proliferate (Lovable, Replit, v0, Bolt).
  • Base44 is small relative to the $1.9B core; mid-teens consolidated growth depends on the legacy business not decelerating further.
  • Investment-year guidance plus reported headcount cuts signal margin and execution crosscurrents in 2026.
  • The leveraged tender (92) shrinks the equity cushion if growth disappoints.
  • Israel HQ/R&D concentration carries geopolitical risk.

Sources