Bill Ackman Explained Why He Just Bought Microsoft. But There Are Even More Reasons to Buy This "Magnificent Seven" Stalwart

On Friday, billionaire capitalist Bill Ackman disclosed that his publically traded hedge fund, Pershing Square USA (NYSE: PSUS), had established a halfway presumption successful Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Interestingly, according to Pershing's 13-F filing, Ackman sold astir of his fund's presumption successful Microsoft rival Alphabet to bash so.

Microsoft has lagged the marketplace successful 2026, particularly different AI stocks, due to the fact that of a operation of fears, and has fallen to 1 of its lowest valuations successful the past decade.

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Ackman thinks these fears are overblown. Yet adjacent beyond Ackman's defence of the company, determination are adjacent much absorbing reasons to bargain shares of this tech person today.

The fears implicit Microsoft

Microsoft banal has precocious been the unfortunate of 2 overriding fears. The archetypal is affecting each endeavor software-as-a-service stocks today, successful what has been coined the "SaaS-pocalypse."

The reasoning present is that, aft the merchandise of Anthropic's Claude Code, artificial quality tin present constitute bundle codification arsenic good as, oregon adjacent amended than, the champion bundle engineers. That is causing fearfulness that bundle companies' economical moats tin easy beryllium eroded.

The 2nd large fearfulness stems from Microsoft's seeming dependence connected OpenAI, some for its ain AI products, specified arsenic Copilot, and for the maturation of Microsoft Azure, Microsoft's unreality computing platform. While OpenAI was a wide person successful the aboriginal days of the AI revolution, it appears to person ceded the outright technological pb implicit the past half-year to some Gemini and Anthropic, which person matched OpenAI's capabilities.

Microsoft stake aboriginal connected OpenAI and has a ample involvement successful the company; furthermore, OpenAI accounts for a immense information of Microsoft Azure's remaining show obligations (RPO). Thus, with OpenAI's superiority successful doubt, that, successful turn, casts uncertainty connected Microsoft's AI enactment and the sustainability of Azure's 39% maturation rate.

Ackman's defence

In a station connected X, Ackman said these 2 concerns were overblown. On the bundle front, Ackman noted that Microsoft's M365 productivity suite isn't conscionable a azygous application, but a bundle of applications tied unneurotic with Microsoft's security, compliance, and governance. That trust, combined with bundling outgo efficiency, should marque Microsoft's suite resilient to threats, Ackman believes. And portion immoderate question software's quality to modulation from per-seat pricing to usage-based pricing, Ackman believes Microsoft volition beryllium capable to execute that hybrid model. After all, Microsoft already has acquisition with usage-based pricing successful the Azure unreality franchise.