Latest news with #PershingSquareCapitalManagement
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Who is Bill Ackman, the man who could broker peace between Elon Musk and Donald Trump?
Bill Ackman made a public post on X asking Donald Trump and Elon Musk to stop fighting. He said they should 'make peace for the benefit of our great country.' Though Ackman used to support Democrats, he is now backing Donald Trump for 2024. He posted this because the fight between Trump and Musk was getting out of control, especially after comments about cutting funds to Musk's companies. Elon Musk replied directly to Ackman's post on X, saying, 'You're not wrong.' This reply showed Musk agrees with Ackman's opinion. The 'X' fight between Musk and Trump The fight got worse after Trump made a comment about 'one Big Beautiful Bill.' Trump earlier threatened to cancel government contracts for Musk's companies, Tesla and SpaceX. Musk hit back, saying SpaceX would end the Dragon spacecraft and asked for Trump to be removed. Trump also said cutting off funds to Musk would save money, and asked why Biden wasn't doing it already. Trump hit back online, saying cutting Musk's government money would save the country money, and questioned why Biden wasn't doing it already. Musk then took it further by mentioning Trump's name in the Jeffrey Epstein files, suggesting Trump might be hiding something. Live Events Who is Bill Ackman? William Albert Ackman, born May 11, 1966. He's a billionaire hedge fund manager and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management. As of May 2025, his net worth is $9.1 billion, as per Forbes. He's known as an activist investor, he buys company shares to push for changes. Raised in Chappaqua, New York. His dad was chairman of a real estate finance firm. Graduated from Harvard College in 1988, and got an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1992. Started a firm called Gotham Partners in 1992 with David Berkowitz. In 2002, Ackman investigated MBIA, a financial services company, and made a big profit during the 2008 financial crisis by betting against it. In 2014, Pershing Square had $4.5 billion in net gains, putting him among top 20 hedge fund managers. Was a board chairman at Howard Hughes Holdings from 2010 to 2024. He stepped down in 2024. FAQs Q1. Why did Bill Ackman post on X about Elon Musk and Donald Trump? He posted asking them to stop fighting and 'make peace for the benefit of our great country.' Q2. Who is Bill Ackman? He's a billionaire investor who tries to fix companies by buying their shares.
CNBC
2 days ago
- Automotive
- CNBC
Trump and Musk feud draws reactions from billionaires, politicians and pundits. Here's who said what
Donald Trump and Elon Musk seemed inseparable not so long ago: attending events together, doing joint interviews and showering praises on each other. All that changed overnight. Trump and Musk traded barbs in a rather public feud, with the U.S. president threatening to pull back billions of dollars in government contracts for Musk's companies, while the Tesla CEO suggested Trump could not have won the election without him. The hostilities began when Trump lashed out at Musk's criticism of the Republican tax-cut and spending bill, and quickly escalated into an all-out online brawl on Trump's Truth Social and Musk's X, with prominent businessmen, analysts and political names weighing in on the fight. Billionaire Bill Ackman on Thursday urged Trump and Musk to stop fighting. The two men should "make peace for the benefit of our country," Ackman said on X. The founder and chief executive of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, who had endorsed Trump a few months before the November election, said "We are much stronger together than apart," with Musk replying: "You're not wrong." U.S. Congressman Jim Jordan told Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Thursday that he hoped Elon Musk and Trump would reconcile, while defending the budget bill. Others in Trump's orbit, such as former senior Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who has clashed with Musk in recent months, were less conciliatory. Bannon said on his "War Room Live" show Thursday that Trump should sign an executive order to take control of SpaceX, through a national security mobilization law called the Defense Production Act. "The U.S. government should seize it," Bannon said, adding that the administration should strip Musk of his security clearance and suspend all federal contracts to Musk's companies, pending an investigation into them. Billionaire investor Mark Cuban seemingly endorsed a proposal from Musk, who had polled followers on whether to "create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle." Former Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang reposted Cuban, later pitching an "Independent '28 presidential primary" with participants including Mark Cuban, Jamie Dimon, and actor Matthew McConaughey . Eurasia Group's Ian Bremmer stated in a post on X that "Trump is more powerful than elon, but far less competent." Wall Street traders dumped Tesla shares, sending them plummeting over 14%. Dan Ives, managing director and senior equity research analyst at Wedbush said in a research note that the conflict was "jaw dropping and a shock to the market," creating major fear for Tesla investors. "Tesla's stock is under major pressure down 15% as investors fear that this Musk/Trump battle will stop their friendship and change the regulatory environment for Tesla on the autonomous front over the coming years under the Trump Administration," Ives said. However, Ives added that the spat had not changed Wedbush's bullish view on Tesla, though it "clearly does put a fly in the ointment of the Trump regulatory framework going forward." Another Tesla-bull, Ross Gerber, head of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, had harsh words for Musk in a series of X posts, stating that Elon was "now attacking all the people he helped put in power." "Elon going postal on Trump and tesla stock is getting walloped. Trump will be returning his new tesla and is saying he got musked. All this can't be good for shareholders. But hey, who cares about us," he said in a post. Gary Black, Future Fund's Managing Director, who recently said on X that this firm had sold all its Tesla shares, argued that Trump and Elon's feud would put further pressure on the stock, taking aim at Tesla bulls. "These same bulls argued for months that the Musk-Trump alliance would streamline the federal process allowing TSLA to secure general unsupervised autonomy license nationally. That prospect is now highly unlikely," he said in an X post. David Rosenberg, president and founder of Rosenberg Research believes Musk's SpaceX provides a huge lead in for America's dominance in space technology and the ongoing feud could erode its support. "There's a small group of Republicans that are unsure about that for various reasons, and many of them have cited Elon Musk's opposition to that [spending] bill as a reason that they will not vote for it. So the politics of what Musk is doing may actually be the most significant part of that," Rosenberg told CNBC's Squawk Box.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Should You Follow Billionaire Bill Ackman Into Amazon Stock?
Billionaire Bill Ackman recently piled into Amazon stock. Artificial intelligence (AI) is helping make Amazon's e-commerce business more efficient, while driving its cloud computing growth. While its shares have rallied, its stock is still attractively valued. 10 stocks we like better than Amazon › Billionaire Bill Ackman recently revealed that his Pershing Square Capital Management investment fund took a large stake in Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) in April. Ackman was buying the stock following the market downturn after President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff announcements roiled the market, including Amazon. Pershing Square's chief investment officer Ryan Israel recently discussed the investment with analysts, stating that the fund acquired a "fantastic franchise" at an "extremely attractive" valuation, and that Amazon would be able to navigate any tariff-induced slowdown. Furthermore, he praised Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and the company's dual business model, stating that it can deliver more than 20% earnings growth. With Amazon shares having rallied off their lows, the question is whether investors should follow Ackman into Amazon at current levels. Back in April, Amazon's stock traded down to a forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) in the mid-20s, while today it's back up to around a 33 times multiple. Although off its lows, the stock is still at one of the lowest valuations in its history. At the same time, Amazon has two attractive market-leading businesses: e-commerce and cloud computing. The company is best known for its e-commerce business, where it sells both its own goods and acts as a marketplace for third parties to sell products. Amazon has become the dominant global player in e-commerce due to its unparalleled logistics and warehouse network. Meanwhile, it is now using artificial intelligence (AI) to become more efficient in these areas. For example, the company is using AI to better plan routes for its delivery drivers, even predicting potential traffic and road closures. But it goes beyond even that, with the company using AI to predict which warehouses to store items in order to reduce travel distances. In the warehouse, meanwhile, the company is using AI and computer vision to improve efficiency and lower labor costs. AI-powered robots can handle a number of tasks, such as lifting heavy objects, sorting, and carrying packages, without taking breaks and making fewer mistakes than humans. Amazon even has AI-powered robots that can recognize damaged goods three times better than humans, preventing them being shipped and reducing costly returns. All this is helping to reduce costs and speed up delivery times. At the same time, the company is also using AI to help third-party merchants on its platform more easily list items and to target potential buyers through its sponsored ad network. Amazon has grown to become one of the largest digital ad platforms in the world, and the growth of this high-margin business, together with its AI efficiencies, is leading to strong operating leverage in Amazon's e-commerce business. This could be seen last quarter, when its North American segment revenue rose 8%, while its segment operating income climbed 16%. While it's most known for its e-commerce operations, Amazon's largest, fastest-growing segment by profitability is its cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon created the whole cloud computing, infrastructure-as-a-service business model out of its own frustrations scaling up its business and the infrastructure bottlenecks it ran into. Today, it remains the largest cloud computing provider, with a nearly 30% market share. AWS continues to benefit from strong momentum in cloud computing, a big part of which is being driven by AI. Customers are using its services like Bedrock and SageMaker to build and deploy their own AI models and applications. Bedrock gives them access to top foundation models they can customize, while SageMaker is more of an end-to-end solution that lets them build, train, and launch models from the ground up. Once these models and apps are live, they are then run on AWS infrastructure. One advantage Amazon has is that it has developed its own custom AI chips through its Annapurna Labs subsidiary. It has one chip, Trainium, that has been designed to train large language models (LLMs), and another, Inferentia, that has been optimized for inference. Custom chips perform better and use less power than mass-market graphics processing units (GPUs) on the specific tasks for which they've been designed, which helps lower the overall cost of ownership. This gives Amazon a cost advantage over its competitors, and should lead to strong operating leverage in this segment as well. Meanwhile, the company is investing heavily to build AI infrastructure to keep up with the continued rising demand. Buying Amazon stock is not without risks, as its e-commerce business does face potential tariffs and economic headwinds, while there is always the potential that the company overbuilds its AI infrastructure. That said, this is a company that has a history of spending big to win big, and if history is any indication, it should be a big AI winner. While its valuation is not quite as low as when Ackman bought shares, the stock is still attractively valued. As such, I think investors can still follow Ackman into Amazon stock and be buyers at current levels. Before you buy stock in Amazon, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Amazon wasn'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 $657,385!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $842,015!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 987% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Geoffrey Seiler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Should You Follow Billionaire Bill Ackman Into Amazon Stock? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Post
22-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Bill Ackman's Pershing Square bought Amazon stake at ‘extremely attractive' price
Billionaire Bill Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management bought a stake in Amazon after shares plunged earlier this year, the firm said Thursday. Amazon had peaked in February at $242.06, but the stock has plummeted more than 30% over the past few months over concerns US tech giants are falling behind in the AI race after China launched its own low-cost language model and worries that President Trump's tariffs could slam their supply chain. 'This was a uniquely attractive time as we felt that the company would be able to work through any slowdown' in its cloud business, Pershing's Chief Investment Officer Ryan Israel said on a call with analysts. 3 Billionaire Bill Ackman's hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management bought a stake in Amazon. AFP via Getty Images Israel said the firm has long admired Amazon and established the position after the company's stock price took a dive following the rollout of tariffs in April. Amazon is 'well on its way' to continuing to deliver more than 20% earnings per share growth, he said. Amazon shares climbed more than 2% on Thursday, closing at $203.05. The firm's investment in the e-retail giant was first reported by Bloomberg. On Wednesday, Amazon reported first-quarter cloud revenue growth and forecast operating income below estimates. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy tried to assuage fears during a shareholder meeting about the impact of tariffs, claiming the company hasn't seen a decline in consumer spending or an increase in prices. Economists have warned that Trump's hefty tariffs could send costs soaring for retailers, especially those heavily reliant on Chinese imports, and force them to pass the additional costs to consumers. While Amazon said it has escaped unscathed for now, several other major retailers slashed their annual forecasts or reported drops in consumer spending in the most recent quarter as the effects of Trump's trade war started to take hold. Target most recently cut its full-year outlook after a tough first quarter hammered by a decline in consumer spending, tariff-related pressures and boycotts over the retailer's move to revoke DEI programs. 3 Amazon CEO Andy Jassy tried to assuage fears during a shareholder meeting on Wednesday about the impact of tariffs. AP Amazon executives had earlier in the year warned that the tariffs could create a more difficult business environment. Last month, it was reported that the e-commerce giant was planning to break out the added tariff-related costs on labels next to products on its site. 3 White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt holding a news article about Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as she speaks during a press briefing. Getty Images Trump quickly placed an angry phone call to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and the company immediately reversed course on the plan.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
That Cake Is Already Baked,' Says Bill Ackman, Warning U.S.-China Tariff War Is Driving Companies Out Of China For Good
The economic friction between the U.S. and China just reached a boiling point. Last month, the U.S. slapped a 145% tariff on Chinese imports, and China has responded with a 125% tariff on American goods. Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, warned that prolonged trade tensions are pushing global companies to shift supply chains away from China—permanently. "That cake is already baked," he wrote April 26 on X, referring to the irreversible decisions companies are making to exit China. Don't Miss: Tariffs Stack Up And Ships Slow Down The tit-for-tat tariffs were detailed in an April overview by China Briefing, a publication by the consulting firm Dezan Shira & Associates, highlighting the mounting cost burdens for businesses on both sides of the Pacific. While President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order announcing a 90-day pause on future reciprocal tariffs on April 9, the relief excludes China. Ackman shared on the same post that "tariffs are very damaging in the short term to companies that rely on China for a large percentage of their goods." He pushed for both countries to lower tariffs to 10%–20%, adding, "The only thing stopping the reduction in tariffs to a more sensible level is the fear on the part of both countries' leadership of looking weak." Trade volumes are already feeling the pinch. Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, told CNBC he expects a 35% drop in container arrivals from China this spring compared to 2024 levels. Trending: How do billionaires pay less in income tax than you? Tax deferring is their number one strategy. Global Supply Chains Find New Homes As companies scramble to minimize exposure, Ackman argued the longer the tariffs persist, "the more rapidly every company that has a supply chain based in China relocates it." He pointed to India, Vietnam, Mexico, and the U.S. as new manufacturing hubs for both U.S. and non-U.S. firms. Data from Rhodium Group shows a surge in foreign direct investment into Southeast Asia and Mexico. Ironically, Chinese companies are driving much of this growth, expanding their own operations abroad as Western firms pull back.
