Today in “things that should come as a shock to literally no one”... 

Dolla Bill Ackman is once again putting his money where his mouth is. This time, it’s a disclosed position in Meta that now eats up roughly 10% of the Pershing fund. Translation: Apparently believing shares are discounted due to fears of AI overspending right after the same company closed its Metaverse department due to… *checks notes*... overspending, is fiduciary investing. 

(Source: Giphy) 

So what’s Bill Ackman seeing that most people aren’t? Well, the stock’s down about 16% over the past 12 months because investors see those figures and assume margins are about to get steamrolled (see: Meta trades around 22x forward earnings). However, for a business with its scale, data gravity, and ad infrastructure, Ackman’s argument is that the multiple is pricing in fear of the spend while giving very little credit to what that spend could unlock. Meanwhile, Nvidia, Google, and Apple all sit on richer valuations without getting the same existential therapy session from the Street.

(Source: CNBC) 

This is the core disagreement. The market sees an expense line. Ackman sees vertical integration of intelligence… owning the models, the compute, the distribution, and the monetization loop inside platforms that already print cash. Basically, Ackman believes Meta doesn’t need AI to become relevant. It needs AI to make its already dominant ad machine even sharper. Better targeting, faster creative generation, automated commerce layers inside Instagram and WhatsApp, more engagement without linear headcount. If that works, the return profile on this spend looks less like indulgence and more like infrastructure.

For instance, Meta right now is caught between two narratives: runaway AI costs versus owning the rails of the next computing cycle. The stock is being valued closer to the first outcome. Ackman is underwriting the second. Meaning, If Meta turns that capex into higher ad yield and new revenue surfaces, today’s valuation will look like the window when investors were still worried about the electric bill. If it doesn’t, this becomes one of the more expensive R&D experiments ever attempted. Bold strategy Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for ‘em. 

(Source: Giphy) 

That said, Bill seems to have the magic touch, regardless. After adding new stakes in Amazon and Hertz this year, continuing his fairly concentrated portfolio approach… Pershing is coming off a year where the fund beat the S&P, posting a 20.9% gain versus the index’s 17%. Of course, we’ll see how this year shakes out for the “May I meet you” influencer… but for now, enjoy the entertainment and place your bets accordingly. Until next time, friends… 

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News holds positions in Amazon, Meta, Apple, and Google as mentioned in the article.