Bill Ackman trims Big Tech position to invest in AI contenders

Bill Ackman has been reshuffling his Big Tech deck. Pershing Square Capital Management fully exited its Alphabet position in the second quarter of 2026, capping a retreat that began earlier this year when the stake was whittled down to roughly 0.8% of the portfolio. The billionaire investor simultaneously cut his Amazon holdings by about 25%, funneling the proceeds into what he views as better-positioned AI plays.

The beneficiaries: Microsoft, Meta, and a fresh $934 million bet on Netflix.

Where the money is going

Microsoft sits at the center of Ackman’s refreshed portfolio. The stake is valued at roughly $2.09 to $2.4 billion, acquired at what Pershing Square calculates as approximately 21 times forward earnings. Azure’s integration with OpenAI’s models has turned it into the default cloud platform for enterprise AI workloads. M365 Copilot, meanwhile, is embedding AI across the corporate software stack that hundreds of millions of workers already use daily.

Meta also received increased allocation. The reasoning there centers on Meta’s AI infrastructure buildout, which is powering both its recommendation algorithms and its advertising technology improvements.

Then there’s the Netflix position, the newest addition at $934 million. Netflix has been deploying AI to optimize its advertising tier, which launched in late 2022 and has been steadily scaling since.

Why Alphabet and Amazon got trimmed

Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta collectively committed between $505 billion and $535 billion in capital expenditures for 2026, with much of that directed toward AI data centers, custom chips, and cloud capacity. The 25% trim in Amazon suggests Ackman sees the capital expenditure burden weighing on near-term returns more heavily there than at Microsoft.

What this signals about the AI investment landscape

Pershing Square’s portfolio remains heavily concentrated in Big Tech and AI-adjacent companies. The $505 to $535 billion capex commitment from just three companies raises questions about sustainability. Ackman is placing his bets on the companies he believes can turn massive capital investment into durable competitive advantage rather than a drag on shareholder returns.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.