Business · Investment

Bill Ackman Invests Heavily in Microsoft, Citing Compelling Valuation

Prominent investor Bill Ackman has significantly increased his stake in Microsoft, viewing it as a core holding acquired at an attractive price.

News AutomationCompiled 11:05 UTC · 1 min read

Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management.

1 sources

Pipeline ingest

3 reads

Positive / Neutral / Negative

1 countries

Related coverage

Key Points

The closely followed investor started loading up on the stock earlier this year.
In dollar terms, Microsoft became Pershing Square's second-largest tech holding.
10 stocks we like better than Microsoft ›

Earlier this year, Pershing Square( PS +13.69%) founder and CEO Bill Ackman piled into a stock well-known not only to tech investors, but the general public at large: Microsoft( MSFT-0.80%).

This demonstrates the famous investor's bullish outlook on the tech sector, as four slots in the company's limited equity portfolio are held by prominent tech names (or at least heavily tech-slanted, in the case of rideshare king Uber Technologies). Here's why Ackman and his team are so drawn to the sector these days.

Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of Pershing Square.

Pershing Square's Bill Ackman. Image source: Getty Images.

A macro buy of Microsoft

Pershing Square's Microsoft move became public knowledge in May, and like most of the company's buy-ins, it was a doozy. The company bought more than 5.65 million shares, worth nearly $2.1 billion as of the end of March.

Subsequently, shifting its tech allocation, Pershing Square sold its relatively small holding in Google parent Alphabet to load up on a bit more Microsoft. This brought the company's holding in the Windows maker to slightly over 6.2 million shares as of the end of June, worth $2.3 billion.

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$3.7TMarket cap calculated using publicly traded shares outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded shares. Implied market cap may vary.

Day's Range

$491.10 - $498.65

52wk Range

$349.20 - $553.72

Volume

39.6M

Avg Vol

34.1M

Gross Margin

67.94%

Dividend Yield

0.74%

Leaning into tech has been a key plank in Pershing Square's investment strategy of late. The quartet of sector stocks the company held at the end of last year -- Alphabet, Uber, Meta Platforms, and Amazon-- accounted for 40% of the portfolio in dollar terms.

Ackman's letter to shareholders covering Pershing Square's inaugural quarter as a publicly traded company explained the reasons. He took pains to note that in the first half of this year, two of the 24 industry groups comprising S&P 500 index components were responsible for 85% of the index's year-to-date gains -- semiconductors and IT hardware, foundational members of the broad tech sector.

Where to invest $1,000 right now

When our analyst team has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, Stock Advisor’s total average return is 932% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 211% for the S&P 500.

They just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the stocks ›

*Stock Advisor returns as of September 20, 2026.

Squaring with the strategy

In that letter, Ackman also enumerated Pershing Square's core investment principles. The company is always on the lookout for stocks that "are simple, predictable, and free cash flow-generative, with strong competitive positions, minimal financial leverage and capital markets dependency, and are run by excellent management teams."

While I'm not convinced all of that applies to every one of the four tech holdings, I'd say the better large companies in the sector tick each box, Microsoft included.

So is Ackman's current faith in tech justified? I would say so.

After all, the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, despite its fits and starts, continues to intensify and looks basically unstoppable (despite the recent gloomy pronouncements of several high-profile developers). Also, the ever-increasing utility of tech solutions for all manner of users, from the individual to the most influential global company, will keep customer demand high.

And, at the center of it all will be the tried, tested, and tenacious U.S. tech industry. Barring some catastrophic meltdown, then, I'd expect habitual buy-and-holder Pershing Square to keep a tight grip on its current sector holdings for a while, perhaps adding one or a few names in coming quarters. Ackman and company are basically tech-heads these days.

Is Microsoft a smart long-term play?

Before you buy stock inMicrosoft, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the**10 best stocks**for investors to buy now… and Microsoftwasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $387,158! extbf{ Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,365,749! extbf{

Now, it’s worth noting_Stock Advisor_’s total average return is932% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to211%for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.

See the 10 stocks ›

*Stock Advisor returns as of September 20, 2026.

About the Author

Eric Volkman is a contributing Motley Fool finance and stock market analyst. Previously, Eric was an equities analyst at European investment bank Raiffeisen Capital and Investment. He’s also been a freelance finance writer since 1995. He studied at Susquehanna University.

TMFVolkman

Motley Fool issues A.I. buy alert

This tech could reach $80 trillion. Imagine a technology worth over 15 Nvidias.

What in the world could be worth 15 Nvidias? The answer is a radical tech breakthrough that our experts think is transforming every walk of life. And this giant leap forward has many on Wall Street very excited.

Continue ›