Even the best investors in the world draw ideas from what other great investors are doing. Warren Buffett once said he used to send a request to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to receive copies of Graham-Newman Corp.'s (run by his mentor Ben Graham) semi-annual reports to see what stocks it owned.
One investor worth following is Bill Ackman, who runs Pershing Square Capital. He's currently attempting to build what he sees as the next Berkshire Hathaway, with the fund buying a controlling stake in Howard Hughes Holdings and planning to turn it into a diversified holding company with an insurance business at the center. (Buffett notably followed the same path, buying a controlling stake of Berkshire through his investment partnership.)
But the build-out on Howard Hughes is just starting. Meanwhile, investors can draw inspiration from Pershing Square's public equity portfolio, which is heavily concentrated among just a few names. Luckily, you don't have to send a request to the SEC via snail mail anymore. The information is readily available online. Here are Ackman's top three holdings.
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1. Alphabet (22.6% of marketable equities)
Ackman made an initial investment in Alphabet (GOOGL 1.47%) (GOOG 1.30%) about two and a half years ago because he felt the market underappreciated the company's artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and overestimated the threat of AI chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT to Google. Since then, Alphabet has made excellent progress in developing and monetizing advances in artificial intelligence across software and hardware.
The company has been a clear beneficiary of increased spending on AI development. Google Cloud revenue grew 34% year over year in the third quarter, while operating margin continues to expand. It's seen strong adoption of its custom AI accelerators, which it calls Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs. That has the potential to increase its margins and lock customers into its cloud platform long-term.
NASDAQ: GOOGL
Key Data Points
Meanwhile, Alphabet has made significant progress in developing its Gemini foundation model and other specialized models for image and video generation. Its Gemini 3.0 release last fall was met with acclaim, and it has successfully integrated the model into its consumer-facing products. Its AI Overviews in Google Search have increased engagement without negatively affecting monetization. As a result, Alphabet saw Google Search revenue accelerate throughout 2025, reaching 15% growth in the third quarter.
There's a lot of room for Alphabet to keep growing. On top of the momentum with Google Cloud and its TPUs, it also signed a deal with Apple for it to use Gemini in a revamped version of Siri for iPhones. The deal will generate billions in revenue for Alphabet and further strengthen its relationship with Apple, which has been a key partner for its search business. As such, it should be able to keep growing its bottom line at a strong double-digit pace for years to come. With the stock trading at a forward P/E ratio of 30, it still trades at a fair price given its growth potential.
2. Brookfield Corp. (17.7% of marketable equities)
Brookfield Corp. (BN 3.60%) is a massive Canadian conglomerate. Subsidiary Brookfield Asset Management (BAM 3.45%) accounts for about three-quarters of its value, while a growing insurance business and a small portfolio of operating businesses make up the rest.
Brookfield recognizes revenue from the asset management business as carried interest. That's the fee it receives as asset manager for delivering returns beyond a certain benchmark. The company doesn't recognize any carried interest until the fund has delivered its preferred return to investors. As a result, revenue is deferred for a long time.
NYSE: BN
Key Data Points
Carried interest is growing quickly. It realized $154 million in net carried interest during the third quarter, up from $61 million from the prior-year period. That number should accelerate further in 2026 and beyond, as BAM is launching new funds at a faster rate and legacy funds start generating carried interest. Investors should note that Brookfield Corp. collects a 33% share of carried interest for funds launched since it spun off Brookfield Asset Management in 2023, but it incurs zero cost. Overall, management expects $25 billion worth of net carried interest over the next decade.
Meanwhile, the Wealth Solutions insurance business is growing quickly as well. Management expects its assets will more than double within five years, while producing a 15% return on equity. That should produce strong earnings growth, with management expecting the segment's bottom line to more than triple by 2030.
Given the strong earnings growth ahead, the stock looks like a good value at around 24 times trailing distributable earnings.
3. Uber Technologies (15.5% of marketable equities)
Uber Technologies (UBER 2.49%) has seen its stock price weighed down by fears that autonomous vehicle solutions from companies like Alphabet will render its service unnecessary. The counterargument is that Uber is a key partner for any company looking to launch a self-driving taxi service. It plays a vital role as a demand aggregator, optimizing fleet management to ensure maximum utilization. In other words, it'll help autonomous vehicle companies get the most out of the vehicles they produce.
Even Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car subsidiary, has seen the value of partnering with Uber. It's made several deals to launch its robotaxi service in cities like Atlanta and Austin. Uber's also partnered with Nvidia to help develop AI models for smaller self-driving car companies. It's made a flurry of self-driving vehicle deals with smaller companies over the past year.
NYSE: UBER
Key Data Points
In the meantime, Uber's cementing its position as the premier demand aggregator for ride sharing. Monthly active users are accelerating, up 17% in the third quarter. Moreover, they're using the app more frequently, with a 4% increase in trips per user. As a result, it has seen strong top-line growth. And it's exhibiting operating leverage as it scales, producing 33% adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) growth in the most recent quarter.
Uber's strong earnings growth comes despite significant investments in its future and continued efforts in autonomous vehicles. With the company's enterprise value sitting around 22 times its trailing adjusted EBITDA, the stock looks like a great value relative to its growth opportunities.
