#413 – Bill Ackman: Investing, Financial Battles, Harvard, DEI, X & Free Speech

Bill Ackman is an investor who has led some of the biggest and controversial financial trades in history. He is founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:

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Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/bill-ackman-transcript

EPISODE LINKS:

Bill’s X: https://twitter.com/BillAckman

Pershing Square Holdings: https://pershingsquareholdings.com/

Pershing Square Foundation: https://pershingsquarefoundation.org

Neri Oxman conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbPHojL_61U

Books mentioned:

The Intelligent Investor: https://amzn.to/3ONnaZy

America’s Cultural Revolution: https://amzn.to/3SDz1dY

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OUTLINE:

Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.

(00:00) – Introduction

(08:55) – Investing basics

(13:47) – Investing in music

(22:08) – Process of researching companies

(26:47) – Investing in restaurants

(32:16) – Investing in Google

(37:58) – AI

(43:13) – Warren Buffet

(45:22) – Psychology of investing

(54:53) – Activist investing

(1:04:41) – General Growth Properties

(1:20:57) – Canadian Pacific Railway

(1:28:21) – OpenAI

(1:32:32) – Biggest loss and lowest point

(1:47:21) – Herbalife and Carl Icahn

(2:04:11) – Oct 7

(2:10:42) – College campus protests

(2:29:09) – DEI in universities

(2:50:00) – Neri Oxman

(3:15:30) – X and free speech

(3:19:54) – Trump

(3:27:30) – Dean Phillips

(3:34:36) – Future