By Steven Scheer
TEL AVIV, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, said on Thursday he remained "bullish" on Israel's economy and financial markets, and predicted the country would produce a $1 trillion company within a decade.
• Ackman was speaking at the Sheba Medical Center's annual ARC summit in Tel Aviv
• Ackman and his wife, Neri Oxman, in 2024 bought a 5% stake in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
• He said he became very bullish on Israel
after the October 7, 2023, attacks and had grown even more optimistic since, describing the economy as one of the best in the world
• Ackman said Israel's main economic disadvantage was its small population compared with much larger markets such as the US and Europe
• However, he said Israel's size could become an advantage in the age of artificial intelligence, arguing that larger economies face greater fiscal burdens. "The United States has $40 trillion of debt and a lot of that debt comes from supporting a very large population," he said.
• Ackman said Israel's technology ecosystem had matured over the past decade, with entrepreneurs increasingly choosing to scale their companies rather than sell them early to multinational firms
• "There will be a trillion dollar market cap company that comes out of Israel. I would be surprised if not in the next five years, let alone the next 10," he said
• Ackman said a series of conflicts had "reset" the Middle East, improving prospects for peace and significantly reducing risk in the region
• He said US President Donald Trump was working to eliminate the Iranian threat and that, if successful, "this is going to be a massive peace dividend in the region".
• On US politics, Ackman said he viewed Democratic Socialists as a "threat to democracy, capitalism, Israel and the Jewish people".
(Reporting by Steven Scheer. Editing by Mark Potter)
