Bill Ackman slashed his fund's 95% stake in Alphabet while piling into Microsoft and Amazon during Q1 2025

During the March-ended quarter, Pershing Square's billionaire boss purchased 5,654,078 shares of Microsoft (making it his fund's fourth-largest position) and 1,844,157 additional shares of Amazon (now the fund's No. 2 holding by market value). Simultaneously, he sold 5,852,145 Class A shares and 645,921 Class C shares of Alphabet, reducing both positions by 95% from Dec. 31.

Ackman stated he established his Microsoft position at a valuation of 21 times forward earnings, broadly in line with the market multiple. He also cited the February rout of software stocks and questions about Microsoft's Azure cloud platform as the opportunity to enter. For Amazon, he highlighted the reacceleration of sales growth for Amazon Web Services (the company's highest-margin segment) driven by integration of generative AI solutions and large language model capabilities.

Ackman clarified via social media on May 16, 2026, that his Alphabet sale was not a bet against the company but rather a reallocation of his finite capital base to Microsoft at a historically attractive valuation. He stated he remains very bullish on Alphabet long-term.