Billionaire Bill Ackman May Be the Next Warren Buffett -- 30% of His Portfolio Is Invested in 2 Brilliant AI Stocks

Key Points

• A sizable percentage of Ackman's hedge fund is currently invested in Amazon and Uber.

• Amazon is leaning on artificial intelligence to strengthen its leadership in e-commerce and cloud computing, but the stock is somewhat expensive.

• Uber runs the world's largest ride-sharing platform, which makes it an ideal partner for companies that want to bring autonomous taxis to market.

• 10 stocks we like better than Amazon ›

Warren Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway in 1965 and promptly turned the "doomed" textile mill into a holding company focused on insurance. That decision created a steady stream of investable cash in the form of insurance premiums, and Buffett used that capital to build Berkshire into a trillion-dollar company through savvy acquisitions and stock purchases.

Billionaire Bill Ackman hopes to emulate that success with Howard Hughes. He already owns about 47% of the holding company through his hedge fund, Pershing Square, and plans to use it as an investment vehicle to build a "modern-day Berkshire Hathaway." That is rather ambitious, but Ackman has a good track record. Pershing Square beat the S&P 500 in the last five years.

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Currently, Ackman has 30% of his hedge fund invested in two brilliant artificial intelligence (AI) stocks. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is the fund's fourth-largest holding at 9% of the portfolio, and Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER) is the largest holding at 21% of the portfolio. Here's what investors should know.

Image source: Getty Images.

Amazon: 9% of Bill Ackman's portfolio

Amazon has a strong presence in three major industries. The company operates the largest e-commerce marketplace in North America and Western Europe. It is the third largest ad tech company and the largest retail advertiser globally. And Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the largest cloud computing platform as measured by infrastructure and platform services spending.

Amazon is using artificial intelligence (AI) across its retail business to improve inventory placement, product listings, customer service, delivery routes, and developer productivity. The company is also using AI to help robots navigate warehouses more efficiently, and to let human workers engage robots in natural language. Investments in those areas should make its retail business increasingly profitable.

Meanwhile, AWS accounted for 30% of cloud infrastructure and platform services spending in the second quarter -- 10 percentage points more than its closest competitor, Microsoft. As the dominant public cloud, AWS is well positioned to profit as demand for AI increases, especially because it serves as the primary cloud provider to Anthropic, an AI start-up best known for its conversational assistant Claude.

Amazon reported impressive Q2 financial results that beat estimates on the top and bottom lines. Revenue increased 13% to $167 billion on particularly strong growth in advertising and cloud services. Operating margin widened 1.5 percentage points as cost savings initiatives continued to pay off, and GAAP net income increased 33% to $1.68 per diluted share.

Bill Ackman started buying shares of Amazon in the second quarter. Pershing Square Chief Investment Officer Ryan Israel said: "We felt that the company would be able to work through any slowdown in the cloud computing division Amazon Web Services (AWS) and we did not judge that tariffs would have a material impact on the earnings in the retail business."

Wall Street estimates that Amazon's earnings will increase at 17% annually over the next three years, which puts the current valuation of 35 times earnings somewhere between cheap and expensive. The most prudent course of action for investors who are interested in Amazon is to buy a very small position today, then add more shares during the next significant pullback.

Uber Technologies: 21% of Bill Ackman's portfolio

Uber is a leader in mobility and food delivery services. It operates the largest ride-sharing platform and second-largest restaurant food delivery platform in the U.S. in terms of sales. It also ranks as the largest ride-sharing platform in nine other countries, and the largest food-delivery platform in eight countries. That scale affords Uber important advantages:

• Uber can cross-promote its own products because it offers mobility and delivery services through a single mobile app: 31% of Delivery First trips come from mobility users, and 22% of Mobility First trips come from delivery users.
• Uber benefits from a powerful network effect. Its platform becomes increasingly valuable to customers as more drivers participate, and it becomes increasingly valuable to drivers as more customers participate.
• Uber has a tremendous amount of data. That information informs decisions, which means its ability to dispatch drivers, route rides, and set prices is always improving. Additionally, the data lets brands target ads on the mobile app.

Uber reported encouraging Q2 financial results. Monthly active users climbed 15%, but trips jumped 18%, meaning users are engaging with Uber more frequently. In turn, revenue increased 18% to $12.7 billion on particularly strong growth in the mobility and delivery segments, offset by a modest decline in freight. GAAP net income increased 34% to $0.63 per diluted share.

Uber is uniquely positioned to help autonomous vehicle (AV) companies bring robotaxis to market because it operates the largest ride-sharing platform. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says the technology will unlock a trillion-dollar opportunity in the U.S. alone, and Uber is making moves to capitalize on it.

The company has 20 AV partners, and its platform currently connects riders with robotaxis in four markets: Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta through Alphabet's Waymo, and Abu Dhabi through WeRide. Uber anticipates five more deployments across Asia, the Middle East, and the U.S. in the remaining months of 2025, with more launches scheduled for 2026.

Wall Street expects Uber's earnings to increase at 22% annually over the next three years. That makes the current valuation of 16 times earnings look very reasonable. Uber may not be a traditional AI stock, but the company is well positioned to benefit from autonomous driving technology. Investors with a minimum time horizon of three years should consider buying a small position today.

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Trevor Jennewine has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, Howard Hughes, Microsoft, and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.