The Weight of Data & The Turn of the Wheel

The quarter turns, and the numbers come due. Not the earnings, not this time. It’s the filings, the 13Fs, a slow reveal of where the larger men have placed their bets. Like reading the tracks of a wagon train, you can get a sense of where the water is, where the land tilts hard. This isn’t about predicting the future, mind you, but understanding where the current flows strongest. These filings, arriving six weeks after the fact, are a glimpse backward, but a glimpse can be enough to see the shape of things to come.

Bill Ackman, a man who moves mountains of money, has spoken before the filings were even made official. He’s laid his cards on the table, a bold stroke in a game where silence is often mistaken for strength. He’s put a considerable portion of his fund, Pershing Square, into the workings of Meta Platforms – two billion dollars’ worth, a sum that feels both immense and, in the grand scheme, a mere ripple in the ocean of capital. But ripples can become waves, and waves can shape the shore.

The Machine and the Seed

Artificial intelligence. It’s the talk of the towns, the promise whispered in boardrooms, the fear flickering in the eyes of those who see their livelihoods threatened. PwC speaks of fifteen trillion dollars in value created by 2030. A grand sum, certainly. But numbers on a page are just that. It’s the hands that build, the minds that innovate, the people who will truly determine if that potential blossoms or withers.

Ackman hasn’t chased the flash of every new AI darling. He’s been selective, choosing companies that, in his estimation, still offer ground to till. Uber, with its grip on the roads and its expanding reach into delivery and logistics, accounts for a substantial 20% of his holdings. Alphabet, the sprawling giant of search and cloud, another 19%. And Amazon, the ever-present retailer and cloud provider, holds nearly 9%. These aren’t just stocks; they’re engines, humming with the potential to reshape how we live and work.

Uber, a modern-day stagecoach line, controls a good portion of the ride-sharing market. It’s a diverse operation, moving people and goods, all guided by the unseen hand of algorithms. Alphabet, a sprawling empire built on information, is infusing AI into its cloud services, accelerating growth in a competitive landscape. And Amazon, the relentless retailer, is leveraging AI to enhance its cloud platform, AWS, the bedrock of much of the digital world.

A New Field to Plough

Now, Ackman has added Meta to the mix. A substantial position, a clear signal. He believes the market has undervalued Meta’s potential, particularly its ability to harness the power of AI. It’s a gamble, of course. All investments are. But Ackman isn’t known for timid bets.

He sees a company that, despite its past stumbles, possesses a unique advantage: reach. Billions of people connect through Meta’s platforms – Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Threads. That’s a vast audience, a fertile ground for targeted advertising, for personalized experiences. And AI, properly applied, can unlock even greater value from that audience.

Meta, under Mark Zuckerberg, has poured billions into the metaverse, a virtual world that remains largely unpopulated. But Zuckerberg now seems to recognize the greater potential of AI, a shift in focus that could prove decisive. He has the resources to invest aggressively, to build a truly intelligent platform, without sacrificing the core business.

The company’s social media assets are unmatched, a network that connects billions of people daily. That scale provides immense pricing power and generates abundant cash flow. And, at the current price, shares appear historically inexpensive, trading at a discount to their five-year average.

Ackman has found a field to plough, a new seed to sow. Whether it will blossom remains to be seen. But he’s a man who understands the land, who knows when to take a risk, and who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.

2026-02-17 13:13

The Machine and the Seed

A New Field to Plough

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