Pershing Square boosts Amazon to fourth-largest holding, dumps Alphabet

Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management sold approximately 95% of its Alphabet position during Q1 2026, while adding 1,844,157 Amazon shares and opening a new $2.4 billion Microsoft stake, making Amazon its fourth-largest holding. Ackman said Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta were 'never cheap enough' until AI infrastructure spending concerns created buying opportunities, favoring Amazon and Microsoft for AI-driven growth.

Via nbcphiladelphia.com Pershing Square boosts Amazon to fourth-largest holding, dumps Alphabet Bill Ackman's fund nearly eliminated its Alphabet position while building major new stakes in Amazon and Microsoft during Q1 2026. Bill Ackman just reshuffled the deck. His hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management sold roughly 95% of its Alphabet position during the first quarter of 2026, while simultaneously bulking up on Amazon and opening an entirely new position in Microsoft. For a fund famous for running a concentrated book of 8 to 12 names, that kind of swap is less of a tweak and more of a thesis overhaul. The moves, disclosed via the fund’s 13F filing in May, reveal a portfolio that’s pivoting hard toward companies Ackman views as better positioned to capture the next wave of AI-driven growth. Amazon is now one of Pershing Square’s top four holdings, and Alphabet, once a cornerstone bet, is barely a rounding error. What Ackman bought and sold On the sell side, Pershing Square offloaded 5,852,145 Alphabet Class A shares and 645,921 Class C shares. Combined, that slashed the fund’s Alphabet exposure by approximately 95%. On the buy side, the fund added 1,844,157 Amazon shares during Q1 2026. That brought the total Amazon position to an estimated $2.4 billion to $3.0 billion, vaulting it to fourth place in the portfolio hierarchy. Meanwhile, Microsoft entered the portfolio as an entirely new position valued at around $2.4 billion. Pershing Square’s remaining top holdings continue to include Meta, alongside the newly enlarged Amazon and Microsoft stakes. The AI thesis behind the switch Ackman himself offered some color on the rationale in July 2026, noting that Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta were “never cheap enough” for his liking until concerns around AI infrastructure spending created buying opportunities. The implication: he saw better risk-reward in Amazon and Microsoft than in Alphabet at prevailing valuations. Amazon’s AI play centers on AWS, which remains the world’s largest cloud computing platform and is rapidly integrating generative AI services into its product suite. Microsoft, through its deep partnership with OpenAI and the integration of Copilot across its enterprise software stack, has arguably done more than any other company to commercialize large language models at scale. Alphabet, by contrast, has faced persistent questions about whether its core search advertising business is vulnerable to AI-powered alternatives. Ackman’s near-total exit from Alphabet suggests he landed on the side of caution regarding that debate. What this means for the broader market For Alphabet specifically, losing a marquee investor like Ackman at a 95% clip could weigh on sentiment. The flip side: Alphabet’s loss is Amazon’s and Microsoft’s gain, at least in terms of institutional sponsorship. Both stocks now sit in a portfolio that Ackman has historically managed with high conviction and long holding periods. Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy https://cryptobriefing.com/editorial-policy/ .