Episode summary
Bill Ackman: Is Permanent Capital an Investor’s Biggest Edge? | Podcast | In Good Company
In Good Company
· · 53 min · Hosts: Nicolai Tangen · Guests: Bill Ackman
Summary
Bill Ackman argues that the best investments are businesses you could own for 20 years even if markets shut, with durable cash generation, pricing power, and little need for reinvestment. He says Pershing Square concentrates capital because there are only a few hundred truly great businesses, and because most managers are forced into short-term thinking by redeemable capital and volatility.
He describes his research process as a mix of broad reading, social media, and deep internal debate. X is his most important information source because it lets him follow people with diverging views, test his own ideas, and find the best counterarguments before investing. He says AI is making markets even shorter-term by instantly processing disclosures, but he also thinks AI will commoditize intelligence and leave more room for creativity and entrepreneurship.
Ackman also explains how Pershing Square now behaves less like a classic activist fund and more like a quiet long-term owner. He says the firm’s permanent-capital structure gives it an edge, and he uses Berkshire Hathaway as a model for how to compound through insurance float and long-duration ownership. The conversation turns personal when he discusses his daughter’s brain hemorrhage, which has pushed him toward brain-recovery and neurotechnology work and a new biotech-focused effort in New York.
Key takeaways
- Ackman says a great business is one you could buy today and still own with high confidence 10 or 20 years from now.
- He says Pershing Square concentrates because there are only a few hundred really great businesses, and even fewer at attractive prices.
- Ackman says permanent capital is a major edge because it lets an investor stay aggressive in crises without redemption pressure.
- He says X is his most important information source because it surfaces diverging views and helps him find the best arguments on both sides.
- He expects AI to accelerate short-term trading, while also making intelligence cheap and potentially boosting creativity and entrepreneurship.
Notable quotes
“a great company is a business you could buy today. The markets could shut for 20 years”
“The best hope we have to get to the truth is hearing from all sides and then sorting through who's got the better argument”
“The answer is there aren't a large number of big ones”
“I think it's making market participants increasingly shorter and shorter term”
How the episode opens
What's the best way to get conviction in an investment idea? Find the best short seller in something that you own and and hear their arguments. If you can rebut each of their arguments, then you can feel more confident in your investment.
And the same thing is should be true for your other views. Find the person who makes the best case for why you're wrong. The best hope we have to get to the truth is hearing from all sides and then sorting through who's got the better argument.
Hi everyone, I'm Nicolola Tangan, the CEO of the Norwegian Southern Wealth Fund and today I'm in really good company. I'm in New York with Bill Akman, the founder of Persing Square. Bill is one of the best known investors in the world and he does it in a very unusual way because most funds own hundreds of companies, but you own uh very few.
compounding very strong at um 16% and you've been doing it for a long time. So, uh great to have you here.
Thanks for having me. — What's a good company? — Good or great? — Great. — Uh a great company is a business you could buy today. The markets could shut for 20 years and you know with a enormous degree of certainty that you'll own something that's enormously valuable 10 or 20 years from now.
And what kind of industries are they in these great companies? You know, I think it's less industry specific than um the structure of the business. — They're amazing businesses and in many different sectors. — And so what kind of structure does it need?
We love businesses that look like royalty collecting companies like annuities where you can be very confident that the annuity will grow at a high rate over a very long period of time and the cash that's generated from the business doesn't need to be reinvested in the business.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- permanent capital
- concentrated portfolio
- long-term investing
- ai market impact
- activism evolution
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Pershing Square
- Brookfield
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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In Good Company, this episode and its artwork belong to Norges Bank Investment Management. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
