Pershing Square Capital Management (NYSE: PS), headed by Bill Ackman, has become one of the key investment funds whose moves investors watch.
Pershing is vastly smaller than Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) in terms of assets. The firm ended Q1 2026 with around $13.7 billion in public equity investments, but a fraction of Berkshire’s $263 billion. Furthermore, Berkshire has around $397 billion in cash sitting on the sidelines.
However, the firms have similarities in the sense that both drive significant stock market discourse. Interestingly, these firms made several moves during Q1 2026 that were in direct opposition to one another when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI).
Pershing Drops Google Stake Massively as Berkshire Buys
One of the most interesting parts of Pershing’s Q1 2026 13F filing is the contrast in its hyperscaler investments compared to Berkshire Hathaway. Notably, Berkshire more than tripled the number of Alphabet’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Class A shares it held (ticker symbol GOOGL). It also bought more than $1 billion worth of Alphabet’s Class C shares (ticker symbol GOOG).
Pershing did essentially the exact opposite. It lowered its stake in both Alphabet’s Class A and Class C shares by 95%; nearly a complete exit. Overall, Alphabet represents less than 1% of Pershing's portfolio, compared to over 6% of Berkshire's. This marks a very clear divergence between two of the world’s highest-profile asset managers.
Still, it is worth noting that Pershing has been invested in Alphabet since Q1 2023, generating significant returns. Meanwhile, Berkshire joined the party much later, not investing in Alphabet until Q3 2025. Thus, Pershing participated in much more of Alphabet’s over 200% run from the end of 2022 to the end of Q1 2026. However, Berkshire’s decision is looking like a good one as of late, with Alphabet shares up more than 35% since the end of Q1 2026.
Despite selling Alphabet, Bill Ackman stated that he still has a very positive outlook on the stock.
“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.”
Pershing Gets in on Microsoft; Ackman Rejects Bearish Narratives
As Ackman’s post notes, the company used its funds from selling Alphabet to buy Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Notably, Microsoft was the only new holding in Pershing’s 13F. Pershing invested nearly $2.1 billion in Microsoft, making the position equal to 15.7% of the portfolio at the end of the quarter. Meanwhile, Berkshire does not have an allocation to Microsoft.
Ackman provided a lengthy explanation of Pershing’s Microsoft investment on X. In Q1, Microsoft shares fell as much as 26%. Ackman noted that Pershing believes that the recent weakness in Microsoft shares is due to two factors. First is the competitive positioning of the Microsoft 365 software suite as AI labs gain momentum. Second is the durability of growth in Microsoft’s cloud segment, Azure.
Pushing back against these narratives, Ackman said, “In our view, investors underestimate the resilience of the M365 franchise given its deeply embedded role across enterprises and highly attractive price-value proposition. Unlike point software solutions, which may be vulnerable to disintermediation by better-performing AI alternatives, M365 is tightly integrated into the daily workflow of nearly every large enterprise and is supported by Microsoft's identity, security, compliance, and data governance infrastructure, which would be nearly impossible to replicate."
In regard to Azure, Ackman said, “We believe concerns regarding Azure's growth trajectory are similarly misplaced, particularly in light of the franchise's exceptional recent performance. Azure revenue grew 39% in constant currency last quarter, with the company guiding to modest acceleration through the second half of the year."
Pershing Ups Amazon Stake Significantly as Valuation Falls
The big divergences don’t end there. Pershing also increased its shares held in Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) by 19%. Meanwhile, Berkshire completely sold out of its position. Amazon is now Pershing’s second-largest holding, worth nearly $2.4 billion, representing 17.4% of the portfolio.
Valuation looks like a clear sticking point in Pershing’s decisions. Alphabet and Amazon both trade at a forward price to earnings (P/E) ratio near 30x. This is far above Alphabet’s average forward P/E over the past three years, near 23x, but far below Amazon’s average near 40x.
Meanwhile, at nearly 25x, Microsoft’s forward P/E is also well below its three-year average of around 32x.
Pershing also maintained the vast majority of its position in Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), dropping its shares held by less than 1%.
Similar to Microsoft, Pershing previously provided a lot of rationale for its Meta investment earlier this year.
Pershing Buys Depressed Hyperscalers, Berkshire Goes All-In on Alphabet
Ackman’s post related to Alphabet indicates that he doesn’t believe Berkshire is making the wrong decision in allocating more to the company. Rather, Pershing sees better opportunities in the market, especially in light of its smaller asset base. Pershing seems to be taking more of a “value” approach to hyperscaler investing through Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta. Meanwhile, Berkshire is doubling down on Google—a name trading near its all-time highs. This is interesting, considering that value investing is often seen as Berkshire’s M.O.
The article "Ackman and Berkshire Are Betting Against Each Other on AI" first appeared on MarketBeat.
