Bill Ackman in Israel: Israel is poised to become one of the best economies in the world
Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of Pershing Square, said at the ARC Innovation Summit at Sheba Medical Center that Israel is poised to become one of the best economies in the world, and that its disadvantage of a small population may instead become an advantage in the AI era, with the key being talent density. He said that he and his wife Neri Oxman decided to invest in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange after only an hour of discussion following the October 7 attack, and revealed that he is preparing to establish an "AI-native" brain science research institution to shorten the cycle for bringing medical innovations to fruition.
Topics
Body
“We came to Israel now because it is very important to my wife, Neri Oxman, to be here to vote,” said Bill Ackman, founder and CEO of investment firm Pershing Square, during a conversation with Prof. Yitshak Kreiss, director general of Sheba Medical Center, at the hospital’s annual ARC innovation summit.Ackman said that following the October 7 attacks, he and Oxman decided to invest in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange after just an hour of discussion. “I believe Israel will become one of the best economies in the world,” he said. “Israel’s drawback is its small population, but in the age of AI, this can actually become an advantage. What matters today is the concentration of talent within the country.”
1 View gallery Bill Ackman. (Photo: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg)Ackman also criticized Europe’s economic and political direction. “Europe is currently under a major threat due to the socialist models prevalent there, a trend evident, among other places, in what is happening in France today,” he said.Turning to elections in Israel and the United States, Ackman said he had personally met only Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, not any of the other candidates. “He has done a good job during the war. Israelis might not feel it, but the level of risk in the Middle East has dropped significantly, while the prospects for peace have improved,” Ackman said. “If the Iranian issue is resolved, it will yield a major ‘peace dividend.’”On U.S. politics, he added: “I am deeply concerned about the rising influence of the ‘democratic socialists.’ It poses a threat to both the American economy and Israel.”
Related articles:
After his daughter’s brain hemorrhage, Bill Ackman commits $400 million to brain research
Bill Ackman: “I definitely hope to make more investments in Israel”
Bill Ackman: “We are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter”Ackman also spoke about his daughter, Lucy, who suffered a stroke while alone at home and arrived at the hospital many hours later with a brain hemorrhage. The experience, he said, helped inspire his plans to establish a research institute dedicated to the brain.“Right from the start of her treatment, I told the medical team that we would do everything in our power, investing every possible resource, not only in her care but also in making such treatments accessible to others,” he said. “Today, she is recovering. She is still the same person, though there is a long road ahead regarding her speech and vision. What matters is that she is making progress. I can see that my daughter is still ‘there.’”Ackman said he had spent the past few months working to establish a brain research institute. He initially held discussions with Mount Sinai Hospital, but the process proved lengthy. He and his team subsequently decided to establish the institute in a building they had purchased that they believe is better suited to their goals.“We want everything to be ‘AI-native,’ and we aim to significantly shorten the timeline for medical development, as it currently takes years to bring innovation into hospitals,” he said.Kreiss noted that Ackman had reached out to Sheba, with discussions including the Israeli hospital’s role in his daughter’s rehabilitation.