## Ackman's AI Bet Backfired? Wall Street Disagrees Hard

Billionaire Bill Ackman just did something unusual in Q3 2025: he dumped 519K shares of Alphabet Class A, cutting his position by 9.7%. Sounds like a red flag, right? Not according to Wall Street.

**The disconnect is wild:**
- Ackman's move: Trimming AI exposure
- Wall Street's take: 57 out of 66 analysts give Alphabet a "buy" or "strong buy" rating. Zero sell recommendations.
- Meanwhile: Alphabet posted $102.3B revenue (up 16% YoY) and $35B earnings (up 33%)

**Why the divergence?** Probably because Ackman is taking profits after a massive rally since early 2023, not abandoning ship. Pershing Square still holds $3.3B worth of Alphabet stock—he's not bailing.

The AI tailwind is real: Google Search is crushing it with AI Overviews, Gemini LLM hit 650M monthly actives, Google Cloud is accelerating, and Waymo is expanding autonomous ride-hailing to 11+ new U.S. cities plus London.

**The lesson:** Sometimes the smartest money and the crowd are playing different games. Ackman locks in gains; analysts price in continued upside.