Bill Ackman: Investing, Financial Battles, Harvard, DEI, X & Free Speech | Lex Fridman Podcast #413

Ackman walks Lex Fridman through his investing philosophy rooted in Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett, explaining value investing, margins of safety, moats, and how he picks companies like Chipotle, Universal Music Group, and Alphabet. He recounts landmark battles including the General Growth bankruptcy bet, the Canadian Pacific proxy contest, and the Herbalife short war with Carl Icahn, as well as his worst loss, Valeant, which coincided with personal crisis. The conversation then turns to the campus response to October 7th, Harvard's governance failures and DEI ideology, and the resignation of president Claudine Gay. Ackman passionately defends his wife Neri Oxman against Business Insider's plagiarism accusations and discusses suing the outlet. He closes with views on Trump, Biden's fitness, his support for Dean Phillips, free speech on X, and optimism about AI and the future.

• Ackman's General Growth investment turned roughly $60 million into over $3 billion, betting that bankruptcy code would let shareholders keep value because the malls' assets exceeded liabilities; the stock went from 34 cents to about $31.
  00:56:31
• A New York City taxi driver who saw Ackman discuss General Growth on CNBC invested around $50,000 at 60 cents a share, held into retirement, and made roughly 50 times his money.
  01:03:50
• Valeant Pharmaceuticals was Ackman's biggest loss, costing about $4 billion and catalyzing a more than 30% portfolio drawdown as Wall Street bet against his entire concentrated book.
  01:25:08
• At the bottom, facing divorce, litigation, and Paul Singer's Elliott trying to force him to liquidate his permanent-capital vehicle, Ackman borrowed $300 million from JP Morgan to buy control and save the firm.
  01:30:25
• Ackman believes the Herbalife short squeeze by Carl Icahn was personally motivated revenge, stemming from an eight-year lawsuit over 'schmuck insurance'; Icahn made about a billion while Pershing Square lost about a billion.
  01:49:40
• Ackman offered to fly Harvard's president to Congress and to show her the Hamas October 7th GoPro footage before her testimony; both were rejected, and his 3-minute clip of the testimony got around 110 million views.
  02:05:22
• Ackman reveals that Harvard had selected a more diverse presidential candidate before Claudine Gay, but discovered that candidate had a plagiarism problem, leading them to install Larry Bacow as an interim choice and skip proper due diligence on Gay.
  02:33:05
• Ackman says he is moving forward with suing Business Insider over its plagiarism articles about his wife Neri Oxman, his first time ever threatening or pursuing litigation against media in 35 years.
  02:57:05

• Ackman credits Benjamin Graham's 'The Intelligent Investor' as the first investment book he read and the inspiration for his career, emphasizing the difference between price and value and the 'margin of safety.'
  00:01:00
• He describes seeking 'non-disruptable' businesses you could own even if the stock market closed for a decade, citing Universal Music Group, which owns about a third of global recorded music.
  00:05:10
• Pershing Square bought Alphabet after Google's disastrous Bard demo crushed the stock to about 15 times earnings; Ackman notes that 'when a business becomes a verb' it signals a strong moat.
  00:25:21
• Ackman owns Burger King via Restaurant Brands, not McDonald's, and jokingly tries to convert Lex from McDonald's beef patties to Burger King during the conversation.
  00:22:16
• In the Canadian Pacific contest, Ackman recruited the legendary railroader Hunter Harrison out of retirement and won roughly 99% of the shareholder vote; management begged to resign the night before the meeting.
  01:13:13
• During his crisis period, Ackman started Transcendental Meditation, got a black labradoodle named Babar, and used a 'little progress every day' compounding method to recover psychologically.
  01:36:12
• Ackman says Harvard faculty introduced him to the DEI 'oppressor-oppressed' framework, and a friend's gift of Christopher Rufo's 'America's Cultural Revolution' shaped his view of DEI's roots.
  02:22:05
• He cites a survey finding only about 2% of Harvard faculty admitted, even anonymously, to holding a conservative viewpoint.
  02:24:11
• Ackman quotes Warren Buffett: 'The only person who can cause you more harm than a thief with a dagger is a journalist with a pen.'
  03:08:33
• Ackman supported Dean Phillips for president, helped run an X Spaces with Elon Musk that drew about 350,000 people, and argued Biden should step aside due to age.
  03:18:55