Billionaire investor Bill Ackman is making it clear he hasn’t soured on Google. Over the weekend, the Pershing Square founder hopped on X to explain why his fund dumped its long-held Alphabet stake—and it comes down to one thing: he needed the cash to buy Microsoft. “To be clear, our sale of $GOOG was not a bet against the company. We are very bullish long term on Alphabet. But at current valuations and in light of our finite capital base, we used $GOOG as a source of funds for $MSFT,” Ackman posted on May 16.The clarification followed Pershing Square’s 13F filing a day earlier, which revealed the firm had built a fresh Microsoft position while slashing its Alphabet holdings by 95%. A person familiar with the portfolio told Reuters the rest of the Alphabet stake was liquidated in the second quarter.
Why Bill Ackman is bullish on Microsoft now
Pershing started scooping up Microsoft shares in February after the stock tanked following its fiscal Q2 earnings. The trigger was slower Azure cloud growth paired with a spike in capex. Microsoft’s stock has shed roughly 26% from its July 2025 high and is down nearly 15% so far this year. Ackman called the valuation “highly compelling,” picking shares up at roughly 21 times forward earnings—well below Microsoft’s average over the last few years.He’s also betting against the bearish chorus. Investors have been spooked by sluggish Copilot adoption and Microsoft’s reworked OpenAI deal, which strips it of exclusive rights to resell the startup’s tech on Azure. Ackman reads that pivot differently—as a deliberate shift toward a multi-model architecture that better serves enterprise customers.He further backed Microsoft’s $190 billion 2026 spending plan, calling it essential fuel for future revenue. The M365 suite, which bundles the $30-a-month Copilot AI assistant, remains “deeply embedded” across enterprises and tough to replicate, he argued.
Pershing’s $2.1 billion Microsoft bet, and a twist from Chris Hohn
The Microsoft position is now worth around $2.1 billion—about 15.7% of Pershing’s portfolio and the only new holding in the latest 13F filing. For context, Ackman bought Alphabet three years ago at an average of $94 a share. Alphabet’s Class C stock traded at $392 on Friday—a hefty return.There’s also a twist worth noting. TCI’s Chris Hohn made the exact opposite move, selling 83% of his Microsoft stake and opening a Google position. Ackman’s response on X? “We sold Google and bought Microsoft. Interesting. I have enormous respect for Chris.”
