#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: – LMNT: https://drinkLMNT.com/lex to get free sample pack – Policygenius: https://policygenius.com/lex – AG1: https://drinkag1.com/lex to get 1 month supply of fish oil – Eight Sleep: https://eightsleep.com/lex to get special savings – BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/lex to get 10% off 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 PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: – Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast – Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman – Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman – Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman 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