Billionaire Bill Ackman exits Alphabet, adds Visa, Mastercard and Netflix

Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management sold its entire stake in Google parent Alphabet during the second quarter, exiting a high-profile technology bet while building new positions in payments and media companies, according to a regulatory filing.

The hedge fund cleared out both its Class A and Class C Alphabet shares between April and June, filings show. Ackman had previously trimmed the holding to help fund other investments, and the latest disclosure confirmed a full exit from a stock that had ranked among his larger positions.

In its place, Pershing Square opened stakes in Visa, Mastercard and S&P Global, each of which ended the quarter inside the firm's top 10 holdings, reports indicate. Ackman also re-entered Netflix, returning to a stock he had previously owned.

The reshuffle left Brookfield as Pershing Square's largest single position at about 17.6% of the portfolio, followed closely by Amazon at 17.4%, Uber at 15.7%, Microsoft at 15.3% and Restaurant Brands International at 12.2%. Ackman added to his Microsoft and Meta holdings during the quarter while reducing Amazon.

The Alphabet exit stood in sharp contrast to another closely watched investor. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway used the same three-month window to lift its Alphabet stake by 83%, turning the search giant into one of its biggest holdings. The split showed two prominent value investors moving in opposite directions on the same company at the same time.

Pershing Square runs a concentrated portfolio, typically holding fewer than a dozen large positions for years. That approach magnifies the significance of each move, since a full exit or a new stake reshapes a meaningful share of the fund.

Ackman has increasingly steered the firm toward payment networks and data providers, businesses that generate high margins and recurring revenue with limited capital needs. Visa, Mastercard and S&P Global each fit that profile, operating as toll collectors on financial and market activity.

The filing does not disclose the exact size of the new positions or the prices paid, and Pershing Square typically does not comment on individual holdings between quarterly updates. The firm has delivered strong long-term returns, outpacing the broader US market over more than two decades under Ackman's management.

Ackman built Pershing Square into one of the most closely followed activist and long-only funds, and his portfolio changes routinely draw attention from investors seeking to track his conviction bets.