Bill Ackman: Investment Strategy, What the Market is Missing, How AI Breaks Businesses
June 2, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readThe Investor Who Wants to Build the Next Berkshire Hathaway
Bill Ackman sat down with the All-In crew to explain why his investment philosophy has shifted toward permanent, long-term holdings, how he thinks about AI disruption, and why he believes some of the world's best businesses are trading at their lowest valuations in years.
The Evolution from Activist to Long-Term Builder
Ackman described the biggest change in his approach over time as "an appreciation for the importance of business quality, long-term durable, protected, non-disruptible growth." He remains as activist as ever, but the tactics have shifted. Early in his career at Pershing Square, he couldn't get CEOs to return his calls. When he bought 10% of Wendy's International—which owned Tim Hortons, a chain worth more than the entire company—the CEO wouldn't respond. Ackman had to enlist Blackstone's Steve Schwarzman to write a fairness opinion, mail it publicly, and wait six weeks for the spin-off to happen. The CEO eventually called to thank him after getting fired with a large exit package.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Introduction & Shift to Long-Term Investing** - Bill Ackman is introduced as a legendary activist investor. He discusses his evolution toward prioritizing business quality and durable, non-disruptible growth over pure activism.
- 2 (04:38) **Underwriting AI & Business Model Quality** - Ackman explains how he evaluates AI as both an investment and a threat, focusing on disruption risk.
- 3 (06:54) **The SaaS Apocalypse & Risk of Disruption** - Ackman identifies which software companies are most at risk from AI, distinguishing between monopolistic players and niche vendors.
- 4 (07:37) **Conviction & Market Timing During COVID** - Ackman explains his motivation for publicly calling the market bottom in March 2020 and again recently, driven by extreme valuations.
- 5 (10:41) **Underwriting High-Growth Companies (SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic)** - Ackman explains how to evaluate companies with extreme revenue multiples, comparing them to venture capital underwriting.
- 6 (14:00) **How Fortune 500 CEOs Are Thinking About AI** - Ackman shares his board-level perspective on AI adoption in traditional businesses.
- 7 (15:54) **Founder-Led vs. Non-Founder-Led Companies** - Ackman validates the thesis that founder-led companies have a structural advantage in navigating disruptive change.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
(0:00) Bill Ackman joins the show!
(0:30) Evolving investment philosophy: What's changed over 20 years?
(4:40) AI: Greatest time to build a business, and a major threat to portfolios
(7:50) Predicting market moves, the "rubber band effect"
(16:00) Owning founder-led companies
(19:30) Building the next Berkshire Hathaway
Thanks to our partners for making this possible!
EY - Agentic AI is introducing a new investment discipline. As AI shifts to consumption-based models, EY connects spend to enterprise value.
https://www.ey.com/en_us/insights/ai/agentic-ai-token-costs?WT.mc_id=3501318&AA.tsrc=sponsorship
NYSE - Thank you to our partner, the New York Stock Exchange - a modern marketplace and exchange for building the future. It all happens at the NYSE.
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