Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square launches venture fund for pre-IPO access

Bill Ackman is taking Pershing Square into the private markets with a new vehicle called Pershing Square Ventures Ltd., designed to give investors access to companies before they hit public exchanges.

The fund, disclosed to shareholders around August 13, adopts an evergreen capital structure. Unlike a traditional venture fund with a fixed lifespan, this one can hold onto its investments indefinitely, including well past a portfolio company’s IPO.

From public equity purist to private market player

For years, Pershing Square has been synonymous with concentrated bets on large public companies. The launch of a pre-IPO venture fund marks a genuine strategic expansion for the firm.

Pershing Square conducted a dual IPO in April 2026, raising $5 billion for the management company itself. Of that total, $2.8 billion came from a private placement.

Pershing Square Ventures will target sectors like artificial intelligence and biotechnology, two areas where much of the value creation has been happening in private markets long before companies ever ring a stock exchange bell.

The Berkshire playbook, venture edition

If the permanent-capital structure sounds familiar, it should. It’s the framework that made Berkshire Hathaway one of the most successful investment vehicles in history, and Ackman has never been shy about drawing inspiration from Omaha.

Private startups carry fundamentally different risk profiles than the blue-chip public companies that populate Berkshire’s portfolio. Early-stage firms in AI and biotech can burn through cash at alarming rates, face regulatory uncertainty, and fail spectacularly. The permanent-capital structure removes the timing pressure, but it doesn’t remove the underlying risk of picking the wrong companies.

Why the smart money is chasing private markets

Ackman isn’t alone in pivoting toward pre-IPO investments. Companies are staying private longer, which means more of the value appreciation happens before public investors ever get access.

Pershing Square’s $5 billion IPO earlier this year positioned the firm to compete in this space. The launch of Pershing Square Ventures is the first concrete manifestation of that ambition.

The competitive landscape for pre-IPO deals is already crowded. Tiger Global, Coatue, and other crossover funds have been active in late-stage private rounds for years. Traditional venture firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia have restructured their own operations to hold positions longer.

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