Bill Ackman hit the headlines in late 2023 for his involvement in the resignation of the President of Harvard, Claudine Gay.

But Ackman has been well-known on Wall Street for his investor activism for decades as the founder and chief executive officer of the hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management.

Bill Ackman’s net worth is estimated at around $4.5 billion in 2024, making him among the richest hedge fund managers in the world.

Let’s dive into his career, net worth, and life story to see what insights we can learn from Ackman.

How Much is Bill Ackman Worth in 2024?

  • Bill Ackman, founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, has an estimated net worth of $4.5 billion.
  • Ackman is known for his activist investing and significant bets, such as his short position against MBIA.
  • He faced controversies with failed investments like Valeant Pharmaceuticals but bounced back with successful trades.
  • Ackman is a philanthropist, contributing significantly to various causes through the Pershing Square Foundation.

Fun Facts:

  • Ackman started his first hedge fund, Gotham Partners, right out of business school.
  • He made $2.6 billion from a $2.7 million investment in credit default swaps during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Ackman is a vocal advocate against antisemitism and supports various social causes.

Bill Ackman Net Worth: Full Breakdown

Bill Ackman is a successful entrepreneur and billionaire hedge fund manager with interests in both publicly traded and privately held assets.

The fees he generates from the hedge funds are volatile and depend on the fund’s performance, making it challenging to arrive at his exact net worth.

However, we have been able to collect plenty of public information surrounding his various sources of income, investments, assets, and business ventures to build a solid estimate, which we break down here for you.

Asset or Income Source Contribution to Net Worth
Pershing Holdings stake $3 billion
Performance fees, 2023 $600 million
Real estate $50 million
Other investments $1.5 billion
Total Net Worth $4.5 billion

Latest News & Controversies

In 2024, Bill Ackman continues to make headlines with a series of controversies and high-profile moves.

One major controversy involved his active role in the resignation of Harvard University President Claudine Gay. Ackman publicly criticized Gay’s handling of antisemitic sentiments on campus and her testimony before Congress, which sparked significant public backlash. Ackman even supported plagiarism accusations against Gay, which intensified the pressure for her resignation.

This controversy has led to Ackman being seen as a key figure in the broader debate on university leadership and political activism​.

Additionally, Ackman has faced scrutiny due to plagiarism allegations against his wife, Neri Oxman, a former MIT professor. Business Insider published a report accusing Oxman of multiple instances of improper citation in her doctoral thesis, which Ackman strongly criticized, suggesting the accusations were a result of an ongoing vendetta​.

On the business front, Ackman has remained active in his hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital, which maintains a high-conviction, concentrated portfolio.

His social media presence has also become increasingly controversial, as he has taken to platforms like X to express opinions on topics ranging from the Israel-Hamas conflict to corporate governance​

Early Life of a Billionaire Investor

Unlike many other celebrities who have a “rags to riches” story to tell, Ackman was born in an affluent family in New York.

His father, Lawrence David Ackman, was the chairman of a New York real estate financing firm, Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group, and was associated with developing iconic New York buildings like the Manhattan Plaza and Chelsea Market.

Bill Ackman went to Harvard College where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in Social Science in 1988. In 1992, he got his Masters in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.

Bill Ackman Net Worth: Founding Gotham Partners

After his MBA, Ackman co-founded investment firm Gotham Partners along with Harvard graduate David P. Berkowitz.

This caught the attention of investors quickly as it is quite unusual for Harvard graduates to immediately start a hedge fund after college. Ackman is quoted as saying:

Everyone told me it was a really stupid idea to start my own hedge fund right out of business school. That’s how I knew that it was a good idea.

Ackman and Berkowitz started with capital of $3 million that was pooled with outside investors.

The duo delivered double-digit returns in four of the initial five years, making them quite popular. This led to Gotham Partners’ assets under management (AUM) soaring to $568 million within the decade.

Gotham was a value-oriented fund to begin with but soon it started investing in private investments which, by definition, are generally illiquid. Also, Gotham started to add some publicly traded stocks that weren’t popular.

The fund made its biggest mistake when it bought a controlling stake in a loss-making golf course operator. They renamed the company Gotham Golf and expanded its operations by adding more golf courses, with the acquisitions being funded largely by debt.

As Gotham Golf’s debt soared, Ackman tried to merge it with First Union Real Estate Equity & Mortgage Investments where he had a controlling stake.

However, First Union’s minority shareholders were against the merger. In 2002, a New York judge ruled in their favor and the merger fell through.

Amid the debacle, several Gotham Capital investors decided to withdraw their money from the fund, and eventually, the hedge fund was wound down.

There were also allegations that Gotham Capital used research reports to manipulate stock prices. For instance, a New York Times story cited an example where the fund sold its stake in Pre-Paid for around $30 per share while its website carried a recommendation for the stock with a target price of $67.

Soon enough the recommendation “disappeared” from Gotham Capital’s website and the company advised investors that the fund would be shut down and its holdings would be sold. These kinds of tactics are quite common in the hedge fund world, but that doesn’t mean they are ok.

The New York Times articles summed up Gotham’s woes, saying, “An examination of Gotham’s activities in recent years shows a series of ill-timed bets, a surprising lack of diversification and a dangerous concentration in illiquid investments that could not easily be sold when investors wanted their money back.”

In 2002, Ackman bet against the municipal bond insurer MBIA through credit default swaps, arguing that the company did not deserve the AAA credit rating.

While Gotham was eventually shut down, the bet against MBIA would turn out to be an incredible trade.

Bill Ackman Creating Pershing Square Capital Management

In 2004, Ackman founded Pershing Square Capital Management with $54 million of his own money, along with the holding company Leucadia National.

Ackman learned from the mistakes made at Gotham and the fund only invests in liquid large-cap companies in North America.

In February 2012, Ackman established Pershing Square Holdings as a limited liability company and commenced operations later that year as a registered open-ended investment scheme.

In October 2014, it converted to a registered closed-ended investment scheme and started trading on the Euronext Amsterdam N.V. In 2017, Pershing Square Holdings started trading on the London Stock Exchange.

pershing square lse
Source

Pershing Square Holdings has appointed Pershing Square Capital Management as the Investment Manager, managing the company’s assets and liabilities.

The firm’s investment philosophy is conservative. It explains that it “generally focuses on high-quality businesses, which it believes have limited downside and that generate predictable, recurring cash flow, and in certain cases seeks to catalyze managerial, operating and governance changes as levers to create substantial, enduring and long-term shareholder value.”

The fund also has put a lot of focus on risk management and “aims to manage risks through careful investment selection and portfolio construction, engaging in typically only one to three new core investments each year.”

bill ackman interview
Source

Pershing Square’s Portfolio: Ackman’s Major Bets

Pershing Square has a very concentrated portfolio and the 13F filing for Q4 2023 showed that the fund only had the following investments:

  1. Chipotle Mexican Grill
  2. Restaurant Brands International
  3. Hilton Worldwide Holdings
  4. Howard Huges Holdings
  5. Alphabet
  6. Canadian Pacific Kansas City
  7. Lowe’s Cos

Of these, nearly 35% of the portfolio was concentrated in just two stocks: Chipotle Mexican Grill and Restaurant Brands International.

In 2023, Ackman disclosed a new position in Google parent Alphabet and Pershing now holds two classes of Alphabet shares, collectively accounting for little under a fifth of the portfolio.

Meanwhile, apart from the current holdings, Ackman has made some of the most iconic trades in history. Here are some of his famous past investments

Ackman’s Bet Against MBIA

Ackman made his first bet against MBIA at Gotham and he continued the position at Pershing Square.

He shorted the stock and bought credit default swaps arguing that the company didn’t deserve a AAA credit rating, and even made his comments public in a 66-page research report. The bet wasn’t an immediate success and few sided with Ackman.

However, Ackman was vindicated during the 2008 global financial crisis and the bet eventually paid off.

Credit Default Swaps in 2020

In Q1 2020, when the global economy was battling the COVID-19 pandemic, Ackman made one of the best trades in Wall Street’s history and bought credit default swaps worth $2.7 million, betting on a full economic shutdown.

The bet played out exactly as expected, and within weeks, Ackman closed the position and netted $2.6 billion from the trade.

The move made Ackman even more popular in the business world as well as among retail traders.

Herbalife Short Position

A short position in Herbalife stock was another of Ackman’s most famous trades, even though it didn’t lead to a profit for the billionaire fund manager.

While Ackman was short on the company in 2013, correctly calling it a pyramid scheme, Carl Icahn – another legendary fund manager and activist investor – took a long position.

Ackman did eventually close his short position, yet the battle between him and Icahn over Herbalife was among the most bitter public feuds among fund managers. Icahn called Ackman a “liar” and said, “He’s the quintessential example that on Wall Street, if you want a friend, get a dog.”

Ackman, on the other hand, said that “Icahn unfortunately does not have a good reputation for being a handshake guy.”

When Herbalife stock recently fell to multi-year lows, Ackman posted on X (formerly Twitter) and justified his previous short position.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International

Not all of Ackman’s past trades have been successful – he lost $3 billion on his investment in Valeant Pharmaceuticals Limited. In a 2017 shareholder letter, Ackman wrote that investing in the company was a mistake.

Ackman admitted, “In retrospect, we misjudged the prior management team and this contributed to our loss. We deeply regret this mistake, which has cost all of us a tremendous amount, and which has damaged the record of success of our firm.”

Ackman also lost millions of dollars in his activist position in the second-largest US bookseller. Borders Group, which later went bankrupt.

Ackman also had to liquidate his special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and return $4 billion to investors after regulators ruled against its proposal to buy a 10% stake in Universal Music Group from Vivendi.

How Bill Ackman’s Other Investments Add to His Net Worth

Earlier in 2024, Ackman, along with his wife Neri Oxman, bought a 5% stake in Tel Aviv Stock Exchange for around $25 million.

It was the first major investment by Ackman in Israel since the war in Gaza broke out in October the previous year.

Ackman is also looking to launch a cheaper hedge fund in the US to target retail investors with a lower ticket size and flat fees.

Some fund managers, especially Warren Buffett, are crypto skeptics but Ackman has spoken out in support of digital assets like bitcoin several times, including earlier this year when he mulled investing in bitcoin in a post on X.

Overall, Ackman manages over $18 billion worth of funds, breaking down to, as per the most recent update:

  • Pershing Square Holdings with an AUM of $14.5 billion
  • Pershing Square L.P with an AUM of $1.41 billion
  • Pershing Square International with an AUM of $602 million
  • PS VII Funds, a co-investment vehicle for Universal Music with an AUM of $1.57 billion

Bill Ackman: the Quintessential Twitter Warrior

Bill Ackman has been campaigning against what he calls antisemitism in leading US universities including at his alma mater Harvard University.

There were pro-Palestine protests at several universities after the 2023 Hamas attacks and allegedly antisemitic slogans appeared.

Ackman was among those who called out hate against Israel and Jewish students in leading universities. Top universities refused to police such speech (initially), unless it contained direct threats or calls-to-action for violence.

Harvard’s president Claudine Gay, who was the institution’s first Black President had to eventually resign after pressure mounted against her stance given in a congressional hearing that was followed by allegations of plagiarism in her academic work.

Ackman has also been a vocal critic of the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) criteria prevalent in US universities.

Shortly after, his wife Neri Oxman who earned her Ph.D. from MIT in 2010 and was a professor at the university from 2017, was also at the center of a controversy when Business Insider said in a report that she plagiarized large amounts of content in her doctoral dissertation.

While Ackman threatened legal action against the publication ( just days after pushing hard to get Gay fired for her alleged plagiarism), Oxman admitted to the error in a long Twitter post and said, “I did not place the subject language in quotation marks, which would be the proper approach for crediting the work. I regret and apologize for these errors.”

Bill Ackman Using His Net Worth for Philanthropy

Ackman is also active in philanthropy and has donated around $50 million to Harvard University over the years.

In 2006, Ackman established the Pershing Square Foundation (PSF), committing over $700 million in grants and social investments towards various causes.

According to the PSF, “By investing in pioneering individuals, non-profits and mission-driven companies who dare to re-imagine the possible, PSF has helped to bring about important breakthroughs — from cancer research and small-scale agriculture to criminal justice reform and educational opportunities for young people in communities — around the world.”

Bill Ackman’s Political Donations and Opinions

Bill Ackman has traditionally supported Democrats and has donated to several candidates including former US president Barack Obama.

However, he has since become disillusioned with the party and last year called on President Joe Biden to step down.

In a CNBC interview (link above), the billionaire investor said “I was a Bill Clinton Democrat and what the party has morphed into is not something I want to be associated with.”

What Can We Learn from Bill Ackman’s Life?

There is a lot that budding entrepreneurs, as well as stock market enthusiasts, can learn from Pershing Square founder Bill Ackman who has a good track record of beating the markets in recent years.

Many investors become struck with their investments and struggle to decide when to exit. In an interview with Interactive Investors in 2022, Ackman advised, “You should sell an investment when you learn new information which is inconsistent with the original thesis.”

While most other fund managers value diversified portfolios and hold dozens of stocks and assets, Ackman runs a very consolidated portfolio.

The approach shows his conviction in the companies he chooses to invest in.

However, retail investors should be careful while following his concentrated investing philosophy – it increases the probability of a “home run” if you pick winners, but it also raises the risk of underperforming the markets even if a few bets go wrong.

While Ackman today is a hedge fund billionaire, he had to slog it out to reach where he is today.

His persistence and determination have helped him overcome the failure of his first hedge fund and he has subsequently founded his second fund, growing it to be among the most successful hedge funds.

According to Ackman, “In order to be successful, you have to make sure that being rejected doesn’t bother you at all.”

Finally, Ackman has learned from his mistakes and structured Pershing Capital’s investment philosophy in such a way that he does not repeat the same mistakes that led to the closure of his first hedge fund. While it’s “human to err” successful people like Ackman learn from their mistakes and get better over time.