Billionaire investor Bill Ackman is buying back into Netflix after famously exiting the streaming giant at a steep loss just three months into his original position.
Ackman’s Pershing Square Inc. disclosed the new Netflix stake in a semiannual report released Wednesday, revealing it held 3.15 million shares as of June 30, representing 4.9% of its portfolio.
The move marks a dramatic reversal for Ackman, who in early 2022 invested $1 billion in Netflix at $400 per share before selling at $225, locking in a loss of more than $400 million.
At the time of his 2022 exit, Ackman said he had “lost confidence” in the ability “to predict the company’s future prospects with a sufficient degree of certainty.”
He acknowledged that Netflix’s plans to introduce advertising and crack down on password sharing made strategic sense but would make the business harder to predict in the near term.
Pershing Square now believes Netflix has effectively won the streaming wars, citing its dominant global platform, content discipline, strong cash position, and a roughly 50% share price decline from June 2025 highs as a buying opportunity.
Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman and Chief Investment Officer Ryan Israel wrote in a second-quarter letter to investors that a market focused on artificial intelligence had created opportunities in other stocks.
Beyond Netflix, Pershing Square also disclosed new positions in Visa Inc. (V), Mastercard Inc. (MA), S&P Global Inc. (SPGI), Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE), and Alcon AG (ALC), with the Alcon and ICE stakes acquired after June 30.
Despite the flurry of new additions, Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) remains Pershing Square’s largest holding, with 1.52 million shares accounting for 12.4% of the total portfolio.
Ackman established the Microsoft position earlier this year, arguing the market had not priced in what the software company stood to gain from artificial intelligence developments across its product suite.
He characterized Microsoft as a “core holding” offered at a “highly compelling valuation,” with Pershing Square beginning to accumulate shares in February when they came under pressure following weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings.
Wednesday’s disclosures represent Pershing Square’s first semiannual report since its U.S. entity began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in late April of this year.
The fund reported net returns of 0.6% on its portfolio holdings from its NYSE listing date through August 11, a modest gain during a period of broad market volatility driven by artificial intelligence sentiment.
Pershing Square typically concentrates its holdings in roughly a dozen companies, requiring a high degree of predictability from each business before making a significant commitment of capital.
Netflix’s trajectory since Ackman’s 2022 exit has been striking, with shares rebounding to around $700 in 2023, a recovery that represented a potential gain of approximately $1 billion had Pershing Square held its original position throughout.
