Billionaire Bill Ackman Is Betting Big on AI -- and He Just Revealed a New $2 Billion Investment

This is, arguably, the most important week of data releases for the entire quarter on Wall Street -- and it has nothing to do with earnings reports.

Today, Feb. 17, marks the deadline for institutional investors with at least $100 million in assets under management to file Form 13F with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A 13F allows investors to track which stocks the brightest money managers have been buying and selling over the previous quarter. Although this data can be over six weeks old when filed, it still provides invaluable insight into the stocks and trends piquing the interest of Wall Street's most successful investors.

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Occasionally, billionaire fund managers spill the beans prior to 13Fs being filed and alert investors to what they've been up to. This is precisely what Pershing Square Capital Management's Bill Ackman just did.

An annual investor presentation from Ackman's fund revealed he'd opened an approximately $2 billion position in Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), representing about 10% of Pershing Square's invested assets. Though we don't know the precise composition of Ackman's portfolio, as of this writing in the late evening of Feb. 13, it's become increasingly clear that Pershing Square Capital Management's value-focused billionaire boss is enamored with artificial intelligence (AI) stocks.

AI makes up over half of billionaire Bill Ackman's investment portfolio

No trend has been buzzier on Wall Street over the last three years than the evolution of AI. PwC analysts believe this technology can create $15.7 trillion in global economic value by 2030. If this estimate is remotely accurate, it would lead to a laundry list of direct and ancillary beneficiaries from the rise of AI.

Although most AI stocks have ascended to the heavens, activist investor Bill Ackman has found a handful of companies that he perceives to be attractively valued. Prior to his company's recent investor presentation that unveiled the $2 billion stake in Meta, approximately 48% of his fund's portfolio was invested in three AI stocks:

• Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER): 20% of invested assets
• Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG): 19% of invested assets from both share classes
• Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN): 8.7% of invested assets

Ride-share kingpin Uber is Ackman's largest holding, with over 30 million shares purchased during the first quarter of 2025. Uber controls around three-quarters of the domestic ride-share market and is a diverse operating model that also includes the Uber Eats food delivery service and a freight logistics segment. Uber's ride-sharing platform relies heavily on AI to match riders with drivers, optimize routes, and dynamically price its services.

Alphabet has arguably been the hottest "Magnificent Seven" component over the last year. Its infusion of AI tools into Google Cloud, the world's No. 3 cloud infrastructure services platform, has accelerated growth for this high-margin operating segment. Alphabet recently reported that Google Cloud sales rose 48% during the fourth quarter.

Lastly, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the global No. 1 cloud infrastructure services platform by total spend. Giving customers access to generative AI solutions and large language model tools has reaccelerated the sales growth rate for AWS. Though AWS made up only 18% of Amazon's net sales in 2025, this higher-margin segment accounted for close to 57% of the company's operating income.

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Pershing Square Capital Management welcomes AI titan Meta Platforms with open arms

Although Pershing Square's 13F will reveal the specifics, a roughly $2 billion initial position in Meta Platforms would make it Ackman's fourth-largest holding. It would also mean AI stocks collectively comprise well over half of the fund's invested assets.

Pershing Square's investor presentation that revealed this new position didn't mince words:

We believe Meta's current share price underappreciates the company's long-term upside potential from AI and represents a deeply discounted valuation for one of the world's greatest businesses.

Whereas most investors have focused on AI hardware flying off the proverbial shelves, it's the application of AI solutions that's beginning to turn heads. Meta's incorporation of generative AI into its existing social media advertising platforms has been seamless. Providing businesses with the tools to create static and video messages for individual users can improve click-through rates and increase Meta's ad pricing power. In other words, we're seeing tangible evidence of AI improving Meta's operating results.

But we're also witnessing a decisive shift in long-term thinking from CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Although Meta's chief has spent tens of billions on virtual reality and the metaverse, he realizes (now) that AI superintelligence is a considerably larger addressable opportunity. Thankfully, Zuckerberg's company has so much cash on its balance sheet that it can afford to aggressively invest in AI superintelligence without adversely affecting its core operating segments.

With artificial intelligence seemingly dominating news headlines, it's easy to forget that Meta's social media assets are unrivaled. Its family of apps, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Threads, and Facebook Messenger, attracted an average of 3.58 billion people daily in December. Since no other social media platform offers access to this many users, it's not a surprise that Meta enjoys strong ad pricing power and generates abundant operating cash flow.

Most importantly, Meta appears historically inexpensive. Following its recent slide, shares are trading at 18.6 times forecast earnings per share in 2027. This equates to an 11% discount to its average forward price-to-earnings ratio over the last five years. Billionaire Bill Ackman looks to have found the new apple of his eye.

Sean Williams has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.