Ackman on the AI blow-up, the trade he won't repeat and building the world's greatest brain institute

Key points

Key takeaways from The Knowledge Project interview with Pershing Square Capital Management founder & CEO Bill Ackman (September 2026):

AI as an industrial revolution. Ackman likens AI to the start of an industrial revolution, calling the pace of improvement the fastest of anything he has ever seen — but predicts there will be a blow-up in which "people are going to lose a lot of money" before the cycle settles.

From interest to a billion-dollar cheque. On his process, he says investors develop a "spidey sense" about people over time, and that his most successful investments were usually cases where Pershing Square did something no one had done before.

No turnover in 22 years. He contrasts the hedge-fund norm of top talent moving on for $100m signing bonuses with Pershing Square's record of holding its team — which he says has had no turnover over the firm's history.

A trade he won't repeat. Ackman revisits the mistakes that reshaped his investment process, and explains why he sold Netflix and later bought it back, admitting his view of the business changed.

Running the firm from a hospital room. After his daughter Lucy suffered a brain haemorrhage, he ran two Pershing Square IPOs via Zoom from her hospital room, alternating 45-minute meetings with 15 minutes at her bedside.

A world-class brain institute. He and Neri Oxman are building what he calls the world's greatest brain institute on a 3.4-acre site in Manhattan, closing the purchase within 60 days, focused on brain rehab, recovery and longevity and making its learnings freely available.

How he holds it together. Tennis most mornings is his form of meditation — one daily block of complete focus — alongside sleep and time with family; and he says he can judge a CEO in about an hour of meeting them.

Read more: The Knowledge Project on YouTube