In 1965 the legendary investor Warren Buffett bought control of Berkshire Hathaway. ( BRK.A ) . He gradually sold off the textile businesses and invested heavily in insurance, utilities, and retail.

Nearly two decades later, a 20-year-old Bill Ackman first heard about Buffett and his investment group and something clicked. “I was inspired to become an investor,” the hedge-fund manager recalled.

After another three decades, Ackman is putting that inspiration into action, planning to build his version of Berkshire Hathaway.

On May 5 Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management announced a $900 million deal to acquire 9 million shares of Howard Hughes Holdings ( HHH ) , a company Ackman wants to turn into a "modern-day version of Berkshire."

"We will adopt similar, long-term, shareholder-oriented principles to Berkshire, ( BRK.B ) and we intend to hold the stock forever," he said.

That principle — buy great businesses and hold them — is showing up elsewhere in his portfolio, too.

What is Bill Ackman buying?

Ackman’s Pershing Square oversees a highly concentrated portfolio of just 11 stock holdings.

The fund has delivered strong returns over time. It has returned 42.17% over the past three years and 149.55% over the past decade, according to data from Stockcircle.

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The billionaire investor made some notable moves in the first quarter.

According to a 13F filing Ackman invested nearly 18% of Pershing Square’s capital in ride-share group Uber Technologies ( UBER ) . The investment totaled more than 30.3 million shares, now valued at $2.8 billion. He first disclosed the position in February.

“We believe that Uber is one of the best managed and highest quality businesses in the world,” Ackman wrote in an X post.

“Remarkably, it can still be purchased at a massive discount to its intrinsic value. This favorable combination of attributes is extremely rare, particularly for a large-cap company,” he added.

Related: Bill Ackman’s net worth in 2025: The hedge funder's wealth & income

Alongside the Uber buy, Ackman added to his stakes in Brookfield Corp., Howard Hughes and Hertz ( HTZ ) . At the same time, he trimmed positions in Chipotle ( CMG ) , Canadian Pacific ( CP ) , Hilton ( HLT ) , and Alphabet’s Class C shares, while boosting his stake in the Class A ( GOOGL ) . He fully exited his position in Nike ( NKE ) , selling all 18.8 million shares.

Uber stock jumps on self-driving momentum

Uber's shares are up 52% in 2025 to date and 22% in the past month. They touched a 52-week high $93.60 on May 20.