Bill Ackman’s next big bet is convincing Americans to fall back in love with capitalism

The outspoken billionaire is the founder of Pershing Square, a hedge fund that has made wildly successful bets (like Chipotle and Canadian Pacific Railway) and overcome epic disasters (like Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Herbalife). 

When I was researching Ackman for the latest episode of my Fortune 500: Titans and Disruptors of Industry podcast, I was struck by qualities he expressed when he was young that would later shape his career.

One was his ambition. As a teenager, Ackman predicted to his dad (who gave him no allowance and declared he would never receive an inheritance) that he would become a millionaire by age 30, have $100 million by age 40, and become a billionaire by age 50. Ackman wound up hitting each of those milestones ahead of schedule.

When he started his first firm, Gotham, out of Harvard, Ackman secured financing by cold-calling moguls on the Forbes 400 list, a ranking of the wealthiest Americans. “I figured if I want to raise $10 million, why not go to the richest people in the world and ask them for a relatively small amount of money?” he told me. A few said yes.

Another attribute from Ackman’s early life that has remained constant is his unwavering conviction. A friend commented in his yearbook that “a closed mouth gathers no foot.” In the years since, Ackman has gained 2.7 million followers on X while arguably gathering many feet.

He has been loudly opinionated on a range of polarizing societal topics that stray far outside the bounds of Wall Street. As he told podcaster Lex Fridman a few years ago when he described his tussles with figures like Joe Biden and then-Harvard president Claudine Gay: “I’m attacking the president, DEI, and elite universities; I’m going to make some enemies.” 

Ackman doesn’t seem to mind the blowback. He told me he gets thanked more than he gets bashed. “I’m not going to lose my job, and I can say exactly what I think,” he told me—then offered an example: “Some people are like, well, I’m not going to open a Trump Account for my child because I don’t like that it’s called ‘Trump’ Account. Okay, that’s stupid.” (Based on this Fortune overview of Trump accounts, Ackman may be right.) 

In my conversation with Ackman, he made the case for recent investments in companies like Uber and Meta, and why he’s bullish on Anthropic and skeptical of OpenAI ahead of the rumored IPOs. But he also delved into another investment he’s making that’s much more personal: A new brain institute in Manhattan, inspired by a family health crisis. “I’ve been very close to that issue in the last six months,” he told me. Another passion project is encouraging Americans, who are increasingly turning to socialism in the midst of the affordability crisis, to love capitalism again. “Socialism is a disaster,” he said. “Watch if Mamdani is successful in implementing these plans. Watch what happens to New York City.”

And if you don’t agree with his opinions, Ackman openly invites you to challenge him, an expectation he has of all his employees and board members. 

“I’m focused on what I believe to be the truth, and I’m very happy to hear your argument if you think I’m wrong. I’ll course correct if you convince me,” he said.

Check out my full interview with Bill Ackman here.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

Top leadership news

Can Mistral answer Europe’s AI sovereignty question? 

Washington’s brief shutdown of foreign access to Anthropic’s Mythos model validated years of warnings from Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch that Europe risks becoming too dependent on American AI. Mensch positioned his French startup as the continent’s most viable alternative. “It’s been a validation of what we’ve been warning our customers about,” Mensch told Fortune, “make sure that you can actually own that technology.”

SpaceX’s first earnings report 

SpaceX revenue surged 92% to $7.8 billion in its first earnings report since going public, topping Wall Street’s $6.9 billion estimate. Shares fell more than 7% after hours as investors balked at $18.4 billion in quarterly capital spending. Elon Musk said the company’s internal timeline for hitting $1 trillion in annual revenue has moved up from 2031 to 2030, adding “there’s a non-zero chance of that being in 2029”.

McDonald’s taps 26-year veteran to fix its biggest market

McDonald’s named Skye Anderson as U.S. president after same-store sales grew just 0.8% in the second quarter, its slowest pace since early 2025, as CEO Chris Kempczinski admitted the chain overwhelmed restaurants with too many product launches. The two executives know each other well, and Anderson’s new gig shows how fast her star is rising.

The markets

S&P 500 futures are up 0.28% this morning. The last session closed up 1.79%. The STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.04% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.16% in early trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 3.66%. South Korea’s KOSPI was up 3.76%. China’s CSI 300 was up 1.24%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.24%. India’s NIFTY 50 was down 0.41%. Bitcoin was at $64K.

Around the watercooler

OpenAI fires back at Apple, publishing private emails to counter trade-secret claims by Beatrice Nolan

DoorDash CEO Tony Xu once thought his $87 billion company would only make $100 million. He tells founders to be ‘greedy’ and dream bigger by Emma Burleigh

Scott Bessent is using moves from his hedge fund days to prop up Japan’s yen—and America’s $40 trillion national debt by Mia Osmonbekov

‘This is insider trading by definition’: Trump sells $100,000 monthly subscription service to Wall Street to further monetize the presidency by Joshua Hong

CEO Daily is curated and edited by Joseph Abrams, Jason Ma, Claire Zillman, and Lee Clifford.