AJ Bell's Head of Markets, Dan Coatsworth, speaks to Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square, about the big forces shaping global markets right now.
Ackman explains why IPOs from SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI could be critical for market momentum – and whether they'll fuel further gains or risk investor fatigue.
He also discusses whether Alphabet's huge fundraise could be a signal markets are nearing a peak, and shares his views on geopolitical risks, including how the Iran conflict is impacting markets and when it might end.
Plus, Ackman reveals whether Anthropic might be considered as an invest...
What Bill Ackman said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Bill Ackman said he expects the Iran war to end within weeks, not months, though he acknowledged uncertainty. He argued that a market correction is possible this year, driven by hype around major IPOs, and that a failed SpaceX IPO would be disappointing for markets. He noted that Alphabet's equity issuance signals its stock is not cheap, but he still finds high-quality businesses attractively valued, citing Microsoft at 21 times earnings, Uber at 17 times earnings, and Meta at similar levels. Ackman said his portfolio is defensive by nature, holding well-capitalized companies that generate cash and buy back shares, and he does not currently have a hedge in place. He identified businesses dependent on capital markets, like OpenAI, as the biggest risk, and said Anthropic has reached profitability despite rapid growth.
Key takeaways
Ackman expects the Iran war to end within weeks, not months, reducing an overhang on markets.
A market correction is possible this year, and a failed SpaceX IPO would be very disappointing for markets.
Alphabet's equity issuance signals its share price is not cheap, but Microsoft at 21 times earnings and Uber at 17 times earnings are attractive.
Pershing Square has no hedge in place today; the biggest market risk is the success of a handful of IPOs.
Anthropic has reached profitability, but Ackman does not need to invest in its IPO.
0:17Are you worried about the current situation or do you think actually we're getting closer to the end of the Iran war?
1:46And do you think that could actually happen this year?
4:19Do you think because they're on more reasonable valuations that they would fall by much less than the market, or do you expect everything will be caught up with a bit of contagion to start with?
5:13Do you look at your portfolio and say that we always need to have something in there that would be resilient if we did have a market pullback, a more defensive style investment?
6:10If we do see a market crash, how are you actually protected in hedges?
8:01Surely there must be a point where investors get tired of keep backing them. What happens in that situation?
8:49As an investor, does that not interest you at all?
And you have companies like Anthropic and OpenAI and others that need to raise large amounts of capital. If one of them fails, or one of the early ones fail, it's going to have an impact on those businesses, going to have an impact on AI investment, and it could have an impact on the economy.
Oil price has been relatively high since start March because of what's going on in the Middle East. And as we're recording this, there's no sign that we're actually going to get a resolution, a peace deal. Does that sort of just point to heightened risks that we could get economic damage, we could get potentially businesses and consumer sentiment could weaken? All of this is what would naturally be bad for the stock market over time. Are you worried about the current situation or do you think actually we're getting closer to the end of the Iran war?
I think we're getting closer to the end of the Iran war. I think it's weeks as opposed to many months away from resolution. I could be wrong on that. It is somewhat of an overhang. It's certainly contributing to inflation. Higher energy prices are something the consumer notices and can reduce demand. So there are lots of risks in the world, which is why we like to invest in these very dominant companies where maybe they'll grow slightly less quickly in a slower GDP world, but the nature of their businesses and their market positions are such that we think they'll do well in almost any economic environment. They'll do better in a stronger market, they'll do better in a world with less inflation, but they'll do just fine in a challenged world. That's why we own them.
For sure. It's absolutely possible. There's a lot of expectation and hype in some of the names you mentioned, companies going public, etc. SpaceX, if that's an unsuccessful IPO, I think it will be very disappointing for markets. And you have companies like Anthropic and OpenAI and others that need to raise large amounts of capital. If one of them fails, or one of the early ones fail, it's going to have an impact on those businesses, it's going to have an impact on AI investment, and it could have an impact on the economy. So it's actually important for markets that SpaceX is a successful IPO.
We've had Alphabet raise some significant sums of money. And we're getting these really big IPOs with SpaceX and Anthropic's coming up. I just wondered if you thought this is kind of top-of-the-market signals when there's lots of massive amounts of money sloshing around.
When Alphabet is issuing equity, they have to believe that their share price is at a level where the cost of that equity is relatively cheap. We bought Alphabet at 15 times earnings and we exited at 30 times earnings. The earnings compounded at a high rate. It's one of the best investments we made in our history. We exited in the last quarter, and we exited really based on price, not based on the company's progress. They're consuming a lot of capital in the AI arms race, and I think they felt they could issue it at an attractive price. That certainly is a signal with respect to Alphabet that the price is not cheap. Interestingly though, despite the market hitting new highs, we have found it easier to construct a portfolio of some of the highest quality businesses in the world offering some of the most attractive rates of return on a risk-adjusted basis on a go-forward basis than we've seen in our career. This is among the unique moments in our career where stocks look incredibly cheap. Microsoft is trading at kind of COVID levels in terms of its valuation. Similar to Meta, Uber I think at an extraordinary value at something like 17 times earnings. So we think it's a target-rich environment for our strategy.
If markets did start to crash tomorrow, you obviously have these names you've just been mentioning. Do you think because they're on more reasonable valuations that they would fall by much less than the market, or do you expect everything will be caught up with a bit of contagion to start with?
If there was a legitimate market crash, generally all stocks go down in that circumstance. But Microsoft at 21 times earnings, Uber at 17 times earnings, it's hard to imagine those stocks getting materially cheaper on a sustained basis. And their earnings, Uber's earnings are compounding at something like in the mid 30s. So if the stock stays flat for a year, the multiple will go from 17 times to something like 12 or 13 times. Extraordinarily cheap prices. Uber is pretty aggressively buying in its shares. We'll make more in the long term if the stock is cheap in the short term.
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Ackman, B. (2026, June 16). Bill Ackman on the IPOs that could make or break markets [Interview transcript]. AJ Bell. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/988684/
MLA
Bill Ackman. "Bill Ackman on the IPOs that could make or break markets." AJ Bell, 16 Jun. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/988684/.
BibTeX
@misc{ackman2026_988684,
author = {Bill Ackman},
title = {Bill Ackman on the IPOs that could make or break markets},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, AJ Bell. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jun},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/988684/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
