Bill Ackman

CEO and Portfolio Manager of Pershing Square Capital Management, an activist and long-term investor.

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Key positions and views

Permanent capital vehicles are superior investment structures because they provide stability, eliminate the risk of investor redemptions during downturns, and allow for a true long-term investment horizon (claims 2, 39, 77).

Asymmetric derivatives trades are a powerful and necessary tool to hedge portfolio risk and generate massive, non-correlated returns during periods of extreme market stress (claims 1, 36, 42, 53).

The activist investor playbook is a versatile tool for value creation that can be effectively applied not only to underperforming public companies but also to non-corporate institutions like universities to force change (claim 7).

The U.S. economy is on the verge of a massive acceleration in growth, driven primarily by an explosion in productivity and entrepreneurship enabled by artificial intelligence (claims 37, 59).

A lean, highly focused team is more effective in asset management, allowing for high operating margins and agile decision-making, in contrast to the bloated structures of larger firms (claims 4, 54, 60, 63).

Podcast consensus on Ackman

Points of consensus

▶Multiple sources confirm Bill Ackman's execution of highly successful, asymmetric derivatives trades during market crises, notably turning small investments into billions during the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 COVID-19 downturn (claims 1, 21, 42, 53, 72, 80).Apr 2026

▶There is broad agreement that Ackman has strategically shifted Pershing Square towards a permanent capital model, explicitly seeking to emulate Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway structure to provide stability and eliminate investor redemptions (claims 2, 12, 13, 39, 55, 77).Apr 2026

▶Several sources corroborate the details of Pershing Square's current major initiative: the IPO of a new U.S. closed-end fund, Pershing Square USA, with a fundraising target between $5 billion and $10 billion (claims 9, 11, 17, 44, 64).Apr 2026

▶Ackman's firm, Pershing Square, is consistently described as having a lean operational structure, with multiple sources citing an employee count of around 48 to 50 people (claims 4, 54, 60).Apr 2026

Points of debate

▶There is a nuanced debate on his investment strategy; while some claims highlight his evolution into a long-term, Buffett-like investor (claim 12), others show he continues to employ an aggressive activist playbook, targeting companies like Universal Music Group and expanding his activism to non-corporate entities like universities (claims 7, 14, 20).Apr 2026

▶A direct contrast in investment judgment is shown where Bill Ackman has been increasing his position in Amazon, while Warren Buffett, whom Ackman seeks to emulate, recently sold almost his entire stake in the company (claim 5).Apr 2026

▶His track record on major investment campaigns is mixed, creating a debate on his risk profile. Sources highlight both monumental successes like the COVID-19 hedge (claim 1) and significant, high-profile losses from his short position on Herbalife and long position on Valeant Pharmaceuticals (claims 3, 40).Apr 2026

▶His fundraising history shows variability. While he is currently marketing a multi-billion dollar IPO (claim 9), a previous attempt in 2024 to raise $25 billion was significantly downsized and ultimately canceled (claim 10).Apr 2026

Key themes

▶The Berkshire Hathaway BlueprintApr 2026

A central theme is Ackman's explicit strategy to transform Pershing Square into a modern version of Berkshire Hathaway. This involves a focus on permanent capital vehicles that prevent investor withdrawals, a long-term investment horizon in high-quality companies, and stated ambitions to build a significant insurance business from scratch (claims 2, 13, 33, 73).

This theme suggests Ackman is trying to solve the core vulnerability of the traditional hedge fund model—capital flight during downturns—by adopting a structure that prioritizes stability and long-term compounding over short-term liquidity for investors.

▶High-Stakes Asymmetric BettingApr 2026

Ackman has a documented history of making large, successful bets on market dislocations using derivatives. He famously turned small investments into billions in profit during the 2008 financial crisis, the 2020 COVID-19 crash, and through a subsequent inflation hedge, demonstrating a repeatable strategy of buying cheap insurance against systemic risks (claims 1, 36, 42, 53).

For analysts, this indicates that Ackman's portfolio returns are not solely dependent on his stock-picking but are also significantly influenced by his macro-level, tail-risk hedging, which can produce outsized gains independent of the core portfolio's performance.

▶Activism Evolved: From Corporations to InstitutionsApr 2026

While known as a corporate activist, Ackman is now applying his playbook to non-traditional targets like universities and news organizations. This represents an expansion of his influence beyond financial markets into the realms of public discourse and institutional governance, creating a new model for activist influence (claim 7).

This evolution signifies a potential new frontier for activist investors, where the tactics of shareholder pressure are repurposed to influence social, political, and educational outcomes, blurring the lines between financial and ideological objectives.

▶Structuring for Exponential ScaleApr 2026

The concurrent IPO of the Pershing Square USA fund and the public listing of the Pershing Square Inc. management company is a strategic maneuver to rapidly scale assets. The IPO is expected to increase AUM by 50% overnight, and by retaining and compounding gains within permanent capital structures, Ackman projects the firm could manage over a trillion dollars in two decades without raising new capital (claims 34, 41, 58, 67).

This dual-listing strategy is designed to create a self-reinforcing growth loop: the new fund dramatically increases fee-generating assets, which boosts the value of the publicly-traded management company, attracting more capital and enhancing the firm's ability to compound internally.

Source episodes

Sentiment over time

Not enough data for timeline

Changes over time

2008

During the global financial crisis, Pershing Square successfully executed a hedge using credit default swaps, generating over $1 billion in profit (claims 42, 80).

Circa 2014-2016

Ackman's firm faced a period of significant underperformance and investor withdrawals following major losses on a short position in Herbalife and a long position in Valeant Pharmaceuticals (claims 3, 40).

Circa 2016

In response to the previous turmoil, Pershing Square transitioned to a permanent capital model. This shift is credited with stabilizing the firm and leading to a period of significant outperformance against the S&P 500 over the subsequent eight years (claims 39, 43, 79).

Early 2020

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ackman executed one of his most famous trades, turning a $27 million credit hedge into approximately $2.6 billion as markets collapsed (claims 1, 53, 72).

Post-2020

Following the pandemic, Pershing Square made another successful macro bet, generating $2 billion in profit from an interest rate hedge against inflation (claims 36, 68).

Present

Ackman is undertaking a major expansion by launching the Pershing Square USA IPO to raise $5-10 billion. Concurrently, he is applying his activist investor playbook to non-corporate targets like universities, signaling a new phase of influence (claims 7, 9, 67).

Suggested prompts

How does Ackman's expansion of activism to non-corporate targets like universities reflect a broader trend of financial influence in social and political spheres? &nearr;What are the systemic risks and rewards of a strategy that relies on both long-term, concentrated 'Buffett-style' investments and highly leveraged, asymmetric derivatives trades? &nearr;Can Pershing Square successfully replicate the Berkshire Hathaway model without Warren Buffett's unique deal-making reputation and access to proprietary deals? &nearr;How will the public listing of Pershing Square Inc. and the launch of Pershing Square USA change the firm's culture and investment decision-making process? &nearr;

Key concepts

Pershing Square USA IPO 3 ep Permanent Capital 3 ep Derivatives & Hedging 3 ep Berkshire Hathaway Emulation 2 ep Activist Investing 2 ep Valeant & Herbalife 2 ep Macroeconomic Outlook (AI, Growth) 2 ep Universal Music Group 1 ep Insurance Business Strategy 1 ep

Notable quotes

“in a little over 20 years, we'll have over a trillion of assets under management.”

Bill Ackman · Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman and CIO Ryan Israel on Pershing Square USA and Pershing Square Inc.

“it cost us only 27 million dollars 10 days later it became worth 2.6 billion we took that money in March of 2020 with the market down 30%, we bought stocks.”

Bill Ackman · Pershing Square USA and Pershing Square Inc.: Bill Ackman in Conversation with Vlad Tenev

“We've generated 8.3 percentage points of outperformance versus the S 500 net of all fees over the last eight year period”

Bill Ackman · Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman and CIO Ryan Israel on Pershing Square USA and Pershing Square Inc.

“I think it's more likely that we will build an insurance company.”

Bill Ackman · Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman: I wouldn't bet against Berkshire post-Buffett

Report last updated: Apr 21, 2026

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