By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
NEW YORK, Feb 11 (Reuters) – Billionaire investor Bill Ackman told clients on Wednesday that his hedge fund bought shares in Meta Platforms late last year, betting the technology giant will benefit from artificial intelligence.
Ackman and his investment team, who delivered a 21% return last year, also said the hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital Management, sold out of its investment in Hilton Worldwide Holdings.
Pershing Square spent roughly 10% of the firm’s capital, or about $2 billion, on the Meta investment, chief investment officer Ryan Israel said on a call with clients.
“We believe Meta’s current share price underappreciates the company’s long-term upside potential from AI and represents a deeply discounted valuation for one of the world’s greatest businesses,” the team wrote in a presentation seen by Reuters.
While Meta’s stock price has slipped 7.4% over the last 12 months, it has performed well for Pershing Square. Since the inception of the Meta bet in November, the share price has increased 11% in 2025 and rose 3% in 2026 through February 9, the presentation said.
Investors have expressed worry about how much Meta is spending on AI initiatives which has weighed on the stock, the hedge fund acknowledged. But Ackman and his team believe AI will help with Meta’s content recommendations and personalized ads and may unlock new engagement through AI digital assistants or wearables.
Ackman, who tends to make only a dozen bets at a time and established himself as one of Wall Street’s most watched investors over the last decade, signaled his interest in big tech months ago. Last year he made a new investment in Amazon and the firm previously invested in Alphabet.
(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )
