Decoding Top-Tier Fund Manager's Strategic Positions: A Look at Three Market Leaders Representing 39.5% of Holdings

Understanding the Investment Philosophy Behind Pershing Square’s Portfolio

Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, has established a proven track record in identifying undervalued opportunities and supporting long-term wealth creation. His investment selections often reflect a deep understanding of competitive advantages and market dynamics. Three cornerstone positions within his fund—representing a combined 39.5% of the portfolio—provide compelling insights into where sophisticated capital is being deployed in today’s market environment.

These three holdings reveal a strategic conviction around companies with expansive addressable markets, resilient business models, and multiple revenue streams positioned to benefit from secular trends.

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) – 8.73% of Holdings

Amazon represents a significant but measured allocation within the portfolio at 8.73% as of Q3. The company’s breadth across distinct business domains—spanning e-commerce, cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence, and advertising platforms—demonstrates a diversified revenue foundation.

The e-commerce operation, while operating on tighter margins, is undergoing structural improvements through automation and robotics deployment. These efficiency gains translate into lower fulfillment expenses, setting the stage for margin expansion and cost transmission benefits to consumers. This flywheel effect drives higher transaction volumes, increased ad revenue, and strengthened customer relationships.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) functions as the company’s primary growth accelerant. The cloud infrastructure opportunity remains in its infancy—as leadership has noted, approximately 85% of IT expenditures still occur on-premises, signaling enormous room for market expansion. The company’s cloud division taps into this vast addressable market while benefiting from AI-driven demand tailwinds.

Operationally, Amazon’s defining characteristic remains its relentless customer-centric approach, evidenced by surpassing 200 million Prime members globally. Combined with proven execution in identifying emerging growth vectors, the company possesses the ingredients for sustained value creation across multi-decade horizons.

Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG/GOOGL) – 10.52% of Holdings

Allocating 10.52% to Alphabet signals confidence in the search and advertising technology leader’s ability to navigate competitive disruption while maintaining dominance. Despite the emergence of AI chatbot alternatives, Alphabet has strengthened its position through adaptive innovation—introducing AI Overviews and AI mode functionalities that synthesize information in conversational formats.

These AI enhancements are not cannibalizing search usage; instead, query volumes have expanded, suggesting genuine user value creation. The digital advertising empire spanning Google Search and YouTube continues generating robust returns, though cloud services represent the more accelerating growth driver.

Alphabet Cloud’s trajectory is particularly noteworthy. The division’s backlog reached $155 billion at Q3’s close, reflecting a 46% quarter-over-quarter expansion. This growth trajectory benefits from organization-wide AI infrastructure investments and the industry’s broader shift toward cloud-native operations. The addressable market for cloud services continues expanding as enterprises modernize their technology stacks.

Beyond core operations, Alphabet’s long-term optionality includes autonomous vehicle development through Waymo, positioning the company to capture value from emerging mobility paradigms. These convergent growth engines justify the fund’s conviction in maintaining meaningful exposure.

Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER) – 20.25% of Holdings

Pershing Square’s largest position—20.25% of the fund—reflects outsized conviction in Uber’s market leadership and growth runway. This concentrated bet appears justified when examining operational fundamentals and structural market dynamics.

Operationally, Uber demonstrates the financial markers of a maturing platform: accelerating revenue and earnings, expanding user engagement, and growing trip volumes. Q3 results showed meaningful increases in both monthly active platform customers and trip frequency, indicating strengthening network effects.

The company’s competitive advantage derives from network externalities—the value multiplies as both driver and passenger communities expand. Current penetration metrics reveal substantial whitespace: only approximately 10% of adults in the company’s top 10 markets utilize the platform monthly. This snapshot highlights the addressable market’s vastness relative to current market penetration.

Demographic tailwinds further enhance long-term prospects. Younger generations are obtaining driver’s licenses later and maintaining lower vehicle ownership rates compared to prior cohorts. This structural shift expands the population requiring transportation alternatives, creating a secular growth channel for platform-based mobility solutions. As these generations mature with continued low vehicle ownership propensities, the addressable market for ride-hailing services expands correspondingly.

Combined with under-penetrated geographies and competitive advantages rooted in network effects, Uber represents a durable holding positioned for extended appreciation through cycles.

The Strategic Takeaway

These three positions illustrate how institutional capital identifies investments characterized by large addressable markets, durable competitive positioning, and multiple growth catalysts. Whether individual investors should follow this allocation reflects personal risk tolerance and investment horizon considerations.