Here Are Billionaire Bill Ackman's 3 Biggest Bets From This Year, and How He's Positioned Going Into 2026

Bill Ackman runs one of the best-known hedge funds in the world, Pershing Square Holdings. That includes a hefty stake in Howard Hughes Holdings, where Ackman now serves as chairman after increasing Pershing Square's stake in the business. The plan is to turn the real estate business into a diversified holding company. In the meantime, however, the bulk of Ackman's investments are with his hedge fund, where he holds a highly concentrated portfolio of high-conviction companies.

Ackman made several moves in the portfolio in 2025, but three big moves stand out as his highest conviction bets based on the amount of capital at risk. Here's how Ackman and his team are positioned on those big bets heading into 2026.

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1. Uber

Ackman disclosed Pershing Square's massive investment in Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER) via social media in February. The hedge fund bought 30.3 million shares of the ride-sharing company for approximately $2 billion. Ackman believed shares were undervalued at the time and investors were weighing the negative impact of self-driving cars too heavily. So far, the investment has paid off handsomely, with the stock up 50% year to date as of this writing.

Uber shares have climbed higher as it exhibits some very strong operating metrics in its earnings results. Monthly active platform consumer growth has accelerated in each of the last two quarters, up 17% in the third quarter. On top of that, users are using the app more frequently, leading to a 22% increase in total trips booked and a 21% increase in gross bookings.

Ackman anticipates Uber's position as the top demand aggregator for mobility services will make it an indispensable partner for autonomous vehicle companies, especially smaller companies looking to compete with well-capitalized tech giants. But even market leader Waymo has found value in testing new cities using Uber's platform through various partnership agreements. Waymo has struck dozens of deals in the space and continues to add more every month.

As a result, Ackman expects Uber to generate earnings-per-share growth of about 30% for the foreseeable future. With the stock trading for 25 times forward earnings, that suggests he still thinks the shares are undervalued. Considering Uber remained the hedge fund's largest marketable equity position as of the end of the third quarter, he's putting his money where his mouth is.

2. Nike

Ackman took an initial position in Nike (NYSE: NKE) in 2024, building up over 18 million shares in the portfolio. At the start of the year, however, he and the team sold the stock and bought deep in-the-money call options. Ackman said the options should result in double the returns of the stock investment if Nike successfully turns around. Considering its stake was worth $1.4 billion at the end of 2024, that makes it another sizable bet for 2025.

Unfortunately, it hasn't paid off yet. Shares of Nike are down 13% so far this year, as of this writing. But the turnaround is showing signs of progress under new CEO Elliott Hill, who's implementing what he calls the "Win Now" strategy. The strategy leverages Nike's strengths, including branding, innovation, and wholesale partnerships.

Revenue climbed 1%, driven by growing wholesale channel sales, last quarter. Management expects continued improvements in wholesale throughout the year, but direct sales will slump as it removes clearance items from the channel. Offsetting that revenue pressure, margins should start climbing without clearance sales and discounts.

Nike remains a leading athletics brand, and it continues to court premier athletes to partner on shoe designs. The brand equity it's built over the years won't disappear quickly. It's well-positioned to use that brand strength in marketing campaigns to make its products stand out in undifferentiated retail locations it supplies via wholesale. The result should ultimately lead to greater sales with less overhead. That's necessary in the current tariff environment, which management estimates will cost the company $1 billion annually before it begins its mitigation tactics of moving suppliers.

There's no sign Ackman has changed his position in Nike. With the stock trading lower over the year, it's very likely that Ackman continues to hold the multi-year option contracts. Ackman said the low break-even price minimizes the likelihood of loss on the contracts, but the clock is ticking on the turnaround. A lack of expiration date makes holding stock less risky, but the payoff could be huge if the turnaround happens before Ackman's options expire.

3. Amazon

The other big new stock purchase in Pershing Square's portfolio in 2025 was Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). Ackman purchased the stock amid the April sell-off, following President Trump's announcement of widespread tariffs. He acquired 5.8 million shares for approximately $1 billion. While Ackman may have gotten a good price on shares of Amazon, the stock has merely kept pace with the S&P 500 since April.

But Amazon could prove to be an outperformer over the long run. Ackman points out that its two core businesses, online retail and cloud computing, are best in class, and the market may still underappreciate the assets and competitive advantages Amazon has built.

In cloud computing, Amazon has experienced an increase in demand driven by artificial intelligence (AI). To that end, it's been unable to build supply fast enough to keep up with demand, even as it pours tens of billions of dollars into new data centers and servers every quarter.

However, the long-term opportunity in cloud computing extends well beyond AI, as only 20% of enterprise computing is currently in the cloud. Ackman expects that ratio to flip over the long run. CEO Andy Jassy said the 20% growth Amazon Web Services exhibited in the third quarter can continue for "a while."

In retail, Amazon is showing strong operating margin expansion as it executes on efforts to reduce shipping costs by optimizing its logistics network. After rapidly building out new fulfillment centers in the first two years of the decade, Amazon completely overhauled its system, dividing the U.S. into regions. The result is a decline in fulfillment costs while increasing the number of items delivered within one day to customers. That's supported strong revenue growth and continued subscription revenue from Prime memberships.

Ackman bought shares of Amazon for just 25 times forward earnings expectations in April. The stock now trades for about 29 times analysts' expectations for 2026 earnings. While that's a slight premium to Ackman's price, it's a reasonable price to pay for a company that's producing excellent earnings growth for two massive businesses. Ackman is likely to continue holding Amazon shares heading into 2026.

Adam Levy has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Howard Hughes, Nike, and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.