Bill Ackman Cut 95% of Alphabet and Bought $2.09B of Microsoft

On May 15, 2026, Pershing Square Capital Management filed its Q1 2026 13F. Bill Ackman had reduced Alphabet from roughly 6.8 million shares to about 344,000 shares, a 95%-plus cut. He had also initiated a new $2.09B Microsoft position that landed immediately as the firm’s number-four holding at 15.3% of a $13.71B equity book. Two hyperscalers, opposite directions, one quarter.

Key facts at a glance

• Pershing Square cut Alphabet from about 6.8M shares to about 344K shares, a reduction over 95%, per the Q1 2026 13F on SEC EDGAR.
• A new Microsoft position of $2.09B was initiated, equal to 15.3% of the $13.71B portfolio, per CNBC reporting on the filing.
• Amazon was added by 19%, taking the position to 11.45M shares worth roughly $2.39B.
• Hilton Worldwide, Chipotle, and Canadian Pacific Kansas City were exited completely.
• The top three positions, Brookfield Corp, Amazon, and Uber, now total 51% of the entire book.

Who is Pershing Square

Pershing Square Capital Management is the hedge fund founded by Bill Ackman in 2004. The fund is concentrated by design. It holds a small number of positions, typically 10 to 15, often with activist or thesis-driven structures. Most quarterly 13F changes from Pershing Square are reweighting moves rather than additions of new names. A new position over 15% of the book on day one is uncharacteristic of recent quarters.

The fund’s investor letters and the public Pershing Square Holdings annual reports are the canonical reference for the broader thesis behind any holding.

What the 13F actually shows

The Q1 2026 13F is a single-page story. Two hyperscalers moved sharply, in opposite directions.

CNBC ran the Microsoft initiation on filing day. Quiver Quant and Seeking Alpha both independently confirmed the same magnitudes.

Why this matters

The most useful reading is what the filing implies about Ackman’s view of the AI-platform race.

Alphabet had been a building Pershing Square position across multiple recent quarters. Cutting it by more than 95% while simultaneously sizing a Microsoft initiation at over 15% of the book reads as a direct preference vote between the two hyperscalers. The framing is not “AI is overrated.” The framing is “this AI horse beats that AI horse.” That is a sharper claim than the more common “trim everything, raise cash” hedge-fund posture.

Greg Abel at Berkshire moved Alphabet in the opposite direction in the same quarter, tripling Berkshire’s combined Alphabet stake to $16.6B. Two famously thoughtful capital allocators reading the same company in opposite directions on the same quarterly cycle is a rare alignment of contradictory public bets. Each manager has the same public information about both names.

The Amazon add and the simultaneous full exits of Hilton, Chipotle, and Canadian Pacific Kansas City reinforce a concentration move. Pershing Square is shrinking its name count and concentrating more of the book in fewer, larger ideas.

What this 13F does not tell you

The filing has the same blind spots as any other 13F, plus a few specific ones for a concentrated activist fund.

• No hedge book. Pershing Square uses options and other derivatives at the fund level. A long position in Microsoft does not rule out a hedge or option overlay against the same name.
• No timing within the quarter. The Alphabet cut could have been one block trade in January or a slow exit over 12 weeks. The 13F does not say.
• No commentary. Pershing Square’s investor letters typically explain large positioning shifts after the filing. The Q1 2026 commentary letter should be the operative document for thesis, not the 13F by itself.
• No private positions. Activist campaigns occasionally involve private negotiations or stake-building paths that the 13F shows only at quarter-end. The disclosure shape is “what was held on March 31,” not “what was acquired through the quarter.”
• No signal on Alphabet’s quality. A 95% cut by one famous manager and a triple by another in the same quarter is not a referendum on the company. It is two different portfolio decisions.

Comparing the two hyperscaler bets in this quarter

This is the table the financial press has been running for two weeks. The point of putting it in one place is to show that opposite-direction trades in the same quarter are evidence of disagreement, not evidence of which manager is correct.

FAQ

Did Ackman exit Alphabet completely?

Not completely. The position was reduced from about 6.8M shares to about 344K shares. A residual stub remained. Press described the move as a “near-full exit,” which is accurate.

How big is the Microsoft position?

About $2.09B at the time of the filing, equal to 15.3% of the $13.71B portfolio. That makes Microsoft the number-four Pershing Square holding immediately.

Did Ackman comment on the trade?

The 13F itself is the regulatory record only. Any commentary appears in Pershing Square Holdings’ investor letters, which are the canonical reference for the firm’s reasoning.

Is the Amazon increase part of the same thesis?

Possibly. Amazon, like Microsoft, has a large AI-infrastructure business through AWS. A 19% add to Amazon alongside a Microsoft initiation is consistent with a generalized cloud-AI preference, but the 13F does not say so explicitly.

How does this fit with the rest of Pershing Square’s portfolio?

The top three positions, Brookfield Corp, Amazon, and Uber, now total 51% of the book. Pershing Square is concentrating, not diversifying.