Bill Ackman's $70 Billion Strategy: Inside His Holdings in Amazon, Alphabet, and Uber

Bill Ackman has built an enviable reputation as one of the world’s most successful investors, and for good reason. His hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital Management, has consistently outperformed broader market indices over extended periods. A closer look at his portfolio reveals a concentrated bet on three technology titans that collectively represent nearly 40% of his fund’s assets—a decision that speaks volumes about his conviction in these businesses and their long-term trajectories.

The compositions of these holdings aren’t arbitrary. Each represents a carefully considered thesis on where secular growth opportunities lie in the modern economy. What makes this portfolio allocation particularly noteworthy is how each company addresses massive structural shifts in how people work, communicate, and move through the world.

Amazon: The E-Commerce and Cloud Computing Powerhouse at 8.73%

Amazon accounts for just under 9% of this major hedge fund’s holdings, yet its importance to the overall investment thesis cannot be overstated. The company’s diversified revenue streams span e-commerce fulfillment, advertising, and cloud services—each representing multibillion-dollar revenue pools with distinct growth trajectories.

The e-commerce division, while operating on thin margins, is undergoing a fundamental transformation through automation and artificial intelligence. Amazon’s deployment of industrial robots throughout its fulfillment centers is steadily reducing operational costs, which the company can reinvest into competitive pricing or expanded services. This creates a virtuous cycle: lower prices drive higher traffic, increased transactions generate more advertising impressions, and greater scale amplifies network effects across its ecosystem.

However, the real engine of this company’s value creation isn’t retail—it’s Amazon Web Services. Cloud computing represents one of the largest addressable markets in technology, and AWS maintains commanding market share. As Andy Jassy noted, the vast majority of corporate IT spending still occurs on-premises infrastructure, suggesting the transition to cloud-native architectures remains in its early innings. This market runway alone could drive decades of growth.

Beyond operational excellence, Amazon’s Prime membership program—now exceeding 200 million subscribers globally—represents a moat of customer loyalty and data that competitors struggle to replicate. The combination of customer obsession, willingness to pursue emerging opportunities like artificial intelligence and digital advertising, and operational leverage creates conditions for sustained value creation.

Alphabet: Google’s Dominance Expands Despite AI Disruption at 10.52%

Alphabet represents slightly more than 10% of the portfolio, positioning it as a core holding that reflects confidence in the company’s ability to navigate technological disruption while maintaining competitive advantages. The search giant’s market leadership, despite predictions of AI-driven decline, has actually accelerated through intelligent adaptation.

When AI chatbots emerged as potential threats to traditional search, Alphabet responded by integrating AI capabilities directly into its search experience. Features like AI Overviews now provide synthesized answers to complex queries—not replacing search but rather enhancing it by reducing time users spend manually assembling information. Query growth following these launches demonstrates that enhanced functionality drives engagement rather than cannibalization.

The company’s advertising empire—spanning Google Search and YouTube—continues delivering exceptional returns on capital. Yet advertising pales in comparison to the growth trajectory of Google Cloud, whose sales are expanding at dramatically faster rates. With a backlog exceeding $155 billion as of late in the year, the division demonstrates sustainable demand driven by enterprise AI requirements, infrastructure modernization, and digital transformation initiatives.

Beyond core revenue engines, Alphabet’s investments through subsidiaries like Waymo position the company to capture significant value from autonomous vehicle adoption. Whether as technology provider, fleet operator, or partnership architect, the company maintains multiple pathways to capture autonomous transportation’s expanding TAM.

Uber Technologies: The Largest Position at 20.25% of Holdings

The single largest position in this portfolio allocation—consuming more than one-fifth of total assets—is Uber Technologies, the global ride-hailing and delivery platform. This concentrated bet reflects a compelling thesis on mobility’s future and Uber’s competitive positioning to capture that value.

Uber’s financial trajectory speaks for itself: accelerating revenue growth paired with improving profitability, expanding user engagement, and rising platform activity metrics. During recent quarterly reporting periods, both trip volume and monthly active platform customers demonstrated substantial expansion, indicating the company’s market penetration continues deepening.

The platform enjoys potent competitive advantages rooted in network effects—drivers want to participate where riders congregate, and vice versa. As the dominant player in most major markets, Uber controls pricing power and enjoys superior unit economics relative to smaller competitors. This network dynamic strengthens further with each new user addition.

Growth runway extends far beyond current operations. Demographic trends create tailwinds for ride-hailing adoption: younger generations obtain driver’s licenses later and drive less frequently than previous cohorts. As this demographic ages without acquiring personal vehicles, their dependence on alternative mobility solutions—including Uber—increases systematically. Even in mature markets where Uber operates, penetration remains remarkably low—the company estimates roughly 10% of adults in its top ten countries use the platform monthly, suggesting significant expansion potential.

The combination of proven execution, structural competitive advantages, underpenetrated markets, and favorable demographics presents a compelling long-term investment case. That this represents the portfolio’s largest single position reflects high conviction in these dynamics playing out favorably.

The Broader Investment Logic

These three positions collectively represent a coherent investment thesis around technology’s role in reshaping commerce, cloud computing, artificial intelligence integration, and mobility. Bill Ackman’s substantial allocation to this portfolio concentration reflects confidence that these companies will deliver superior returns over the next decade and beyond.

The differentiation between these three stocks lies not in their sectors but in their structural advantages—economic moats that protect market share, network effects that strengthen with scale, and secular trends working in their favor. Rather than betting on market-timing or cyclical rebounds, this portfolio construction emphasizes durable competitive advantages and favorable industry dynamics.

For investors considering whether to mirror these holdings, the fundamental question isn’t whether these are good companies—their market positions clearly indicate they are. Rather, the assessment should focus on whether their valuations adequately reflect their long-term earnings potential and the magnitude of their addressable markets. What Bill Ackman’s concentrated bets suggest is that at current levels, the risk-reward proposition remains favorable for patient, long-term oriented investors.