Pershing Square Picks Microsoft: Why the Tech Giant Still Matters

Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital has added Microsoft to its portfolio, showing confidence in the company despite a shaky start to the year. The investment comes after Ackman highlighted Microsoft’s two main business engines: the M365 productivity suite, which powers everyday tools like Word and Excel, and Azure, its cloud‑computing platform. Ackman argues that many investors overlook how deeply these products are woven into corporate workflows, giving them a strong price‑to‑value advantage. Even as Microsoft’s shares have dropped nearly 12% since the beginning of the year, the stock rose about 2% in early trade after his announcement.While he called Microsoft a “core holding” for Pershing, the exact size of the stake remains undisclosed. The firm already owns shares in other tech leaders such as Meta, Amazon and Google. Critics worry that Microsoft’s Azure division is growing slower than expected and that the company has spent heavily on artificial intelligence infrastructure. Yet Ackman sees this spending as a recipe for future earnings, believing it will help Microsoft stay competitive. He also praised Microsoft’s recent shift in its partnership with OpenAI, limiting the AI firm’s payments to $38 billion. According to Ackman, this move is not a retreat but a strategic change toward a more open, multi‑model approach that gives businesses more choices when it comes to AI solutions.