Ackman builds position in Microsoft, calling its moat 'unreplicable'; reduces stake in Google.

Meanwhile, Ackman revealed he has reduced his stake in Alphabet. According to Bloomberg data, Pershing Square sold approximately 4.1 million shares of Alphabet in December last year, leaving only about 678,000 shares; this latest statement further confirms his ongoing stance of reducing exposure to Google. On Friday, Microsoft closed up 3.05%, while Google Class A shares fell 1.07%. Why Microsoft Attracted Ackman Ackman positions Microsoft as one of the most valuable assets in enterprise technology. He stated that the Microsoft 365 suite—including Word and Excel—is 'deeply embedded' within large enterprises, and the moat built upon the company’s existing infrastructure is 'nearly unreplicable'; meanwhile, robust demand for Azure cloud services proves that market concerns over its growth prospects are 'entirely misplaced'. Microsoft’s stock has faced pressure this year, with market concerns centering on two main points: First, enterprise adoption of the AI assistant Copilot has fallen short of expectations; second, whether the Microsoft 365 business can retain its market share amid intensifying competition. Third, Microsoft faces a bottleneck in data center capacity expansion, lagging behind surging cloud demand. Ackman believes precisely this price correction presented Pershing Square with an opportune entry point. Regarding adjustments to Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI, Ackman also offered an interpretation diverging from mainstream market views. In April, Microsoft relinquished its exclusive rights to sell OpenAI models—a move widely perceived as a concession. Ackman, however, sees it as Microsoft’s 'intentional pivot toward a more open, multi-model architecture', better suited to serving enterprise clients—not merely a retreat. Entering Countercyclically with a Long-Term Lens In his X post, Ackman also elaborated on current market structure, noting two converging forces: the ever-expanding scale of index-based ownership, and massive capital controlled by extremely short-term, highly leveraged investors with low tolerance for volatility.

The 'Wolf of Wall Street' is using Twitter to remotely control Trump.

On August 11, Trump formally signed an executive order further suspending for 90 days the U.S. imposition of reciprocal tariffs on China—marking the second such 90-day suspension, with the first dating back to April 10. It appears the White House has turned 'suspension' into a prized tool in its policy toolkit: saving face, maintaining pressure, and preserving negotiating room—all at once. Yet this tool does not appear to be Trump’s invention—but rather, one suggested by a fund manager. On April 7—72 hours before Trump announced the suspension of tariff hikes against 75 countries—Bill Ackman, a Wall Street celebrity fund manager, posted a tweet. Its gist was: first affirming Trump’s overall trade policy as fundamentally correct—i.e., preventing other countries from 'taking advantage of America'—then shifting to specific measures. He argued that imposing steep tariffs on so many countries simultaneously would amount to launching an 'economic nuclear war', triggering investment paralysis, consumer collapse, and severe damage to U.S. credibility. He then proposed a compromise solution: suspend tariffs for 90 days, using that period to apply pressure and negotiate new tariff agreements. There’s another detail: in that tweet, Ackman directly @-mentioned Trump’s account. The post was subsequently shared nearly 10,000 times, and numerous commenters joined in @-mentioning Trump—flooding Trump’s notifications feed entirely with messages about that single tweet. Seventy-two hours later, Trump almost verbatim adopted Ackman’s proposal. When reporters asked whether he had decided on the spot that morning, Trump replied: 'I’ve been thinking about it for several days' and 'have been discussing it with the Treasury Secretary and Commerce Secretary.' This statement implies Trump acknowledged the tariff suspension plan did not originate with his staff—it was his own idea, subsequently vetted with his cabinet. If this were the only instance, one might dismiss Ackman’s 'remote control' of Trump as coincidence. But stepping back in time, Ackman appears to have successfully influenced Trump once before—at the very outset of Trump’s second term. Since the 2008 financial crisis, the two major U.S. mortgage companies—Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae—have operated under government conservatorship and regulatory oversight, with their stocks trading sideways for years. Most fund managers ignored them, yet Ackman persistently accumulated shares despite investor skepticism—eventually amassing 150 million shares. Just as the market widely assumed Ackman had misjudged the situation, on December 31, 2024—before Trump’s formal inauguration—Ackman posted another tweet @-mentioning him. Its core message: Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are expected to exit government conservatorship within the next two years—and potentially go public via IPO in 2026. Why? Ackman argued that the two GSEs carry massive liabilities that make the federal government’s balance sheet look bad; ending conservatorship would instantly remove those liabilities from the books, and the government could generate $300 billion in revenue by selling their shares. Naturally, he also lavished praise on Trump, saying Trump loves big deals—and this would be the largest deal in history—expressing full confidence Trump would pull it off. What happened next? This blunt stock forecast garnered 3.44 million views. Many Wall Street professionals and retail investors began re-evaluating the value of the two GSEs. After Trump took office, his Housing Secretary publicly declared that ending the conservatorship of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae—and returning them to private ownership—would be his top priority. Both stocks then entered a phase of explosive upward momentum.

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