Bill Ackman bought Uber. I’ll take one to meet him.

We now know Bill Ackman sold Pershing Square Holdings’ entire stake in Alphabet (GOOG) in the second quarter.

That seems to be the big news about him this week. That and the fact that he bought Netflix (NFLX) instead, pushing those shares up in the process.

Truth be told though, he’s been doing a lot of reshaping of Pershing Square’s portfolio lately. The investment holding company now has positions in Mastercard (MA), Visa (V), and S&P Global (SPGI) as well.

The position that really catches my attention right now, however, is Uber Technologies (UBER).

Pershing first established a position in that company in early 2025. That was when the market was particularly fixated on how far autonomous vehicles (AVs) could go.

Ackman, however, argued that fears of Uber’s subsequent demise were overblown. And so far, he’s been right. Uber currently ranks as one of his fastest-growing companies, with an estimated 25% three- to five-year earnings per share (EPS) growth rate.

While hardly perfect, Ackman didn’t become a billionaire from nothing. The man knows how to evaluate a stock, including by taking truly contrarian angles.

I’ll be meeting with him sometime after Labor Day – taking an Uber for the last leg of the journey, in fact. So I’ll be sure to ask him about the company when I do.

Until then, there’s plenty to explore, including addressing whether robotaxis are the wave of the future… thereby making Uber obsolete. This bear case assumes two things:

My polite response to those fears is that I believe Wall Street is assigning too high a probability to both. But if I was going to be more blunt, I’d put it this way…

I think the naysayers are dead wrong.

Now, I’m not trying to say that investors’ concerns about robotaxis are utterly irrational. The advancement of AVs should not be taken lightly, even by Uber, the global ride-hailing king.

Companies like Waymo and Tesla are making inroads (pardon the pun) in several big cities. And I’m sure they’ll make more still.

Waymo in particular gave 15 million rides during 2025. And it’s now providing more than 400,000 per week across six major U.S. metropolitan areas.

That’s a clearly established presence. However, it still represents a mere fraction of the overall market, with widespread and serious hurdles to further growth.

What Uber naysayers don’t recognize is how many technological, regulatory, and political issues the AV industry is constantly battling. Just because Waymo is successfully operating in Austin doesn't mean it has a clear lane elsewhere.

It has to fight – hard – to stake a presence in any new city. And even when it does win approval from the local powers that be, it then has to navigate different roads, regulations, insurance requirements, weather patterns, and consumer behavior.

Speaking of the latter, poll after poll show that most people prefer an actual human being behind the steering wheel. You could argue that most of those skeptics live outside big, progressive cities, and you’d probably be right.

Yet that’s where you need to stop studying Waymo and start paying more attention to Uber itself. Because Uber isn't just a big-city taxi app.

It’s a massive global platform operating just about anywhere you’re likely to be.

The company reported around 208 million monthly active platform consumers in Q2, up about 16% year over year. And gross bookings were roughly $58 billion, a 22% increase on a constant-currency basis.

Moreover, its top 20 U.S. cities account for just 25% of national profits. So the vast majority of its business comes from smaller (though not necessarily small) locales.

These are the kinds of places robotaxis could take years to drive into. Maybe even decades.

Uber might have been born out of technological advancements, but it’s not really a tech company anymore. Not in a world of ever-advancing artificial intelligence and robotics.

Then again, it doesn’t need to be. For the time being, it just has to focus on customer service – which is exactly what it’s been successfully doing for years.

Uber already knows where its 200 million+ customers want to go, when they want to go, what they're willing to pay, and how they prefer to pay. That matters intensely, even in our digitized age.

That's why I increasingly think of Uber as a tollbooth for autonomous transportation, rather like Visa is for credit payments.

Visa doesn’t need to issue credit or produce the goods being purchased. It just needs to operate the network connecting everyone together.

Similarly, Uber doesn’t have to manufacture vehicles or technologies to keep its business intact and growing. It only has to meet customers where they are.

That includes the ones who do want to take a robotaxi ride.

You wouldn’t know this for all the fearmongering, but Uber already operates AVs in parts of Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, and Las Vegas. So it’s not even close to being behind the times.

The fear-mongers also want you to overlook how its ecosystem spans mobility, restaurants, and groceries. (How can they forget about Uber Eats so easily?) Plus retail delivery, freight, and advertising as well.

Uber also announced a $14.8 billion acquisition offer for Germany’s Delivery Hero in July, a multinational online food delivery company with access across 65 countries throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.

Like any other giant transaction, this one comes with risks, specifically along the regulatory and integration lines. But it’s nonetheless one more step in maintaining its relevance even in this high-tech age of ours.

I want to return to Uber Eats specifically for a moment. Because rival DoorDash (DASH) isn’t getting the same stock market hate.

Wall Street actually assigns a premium to food delivery, which doesn’t face the same AV disruption possibilities as passenger transportation. So apply a DoorDash-like sales multiple to Uber's delivery operations…

And you could reach a rational standalone valuation over $100 billion. Whereas the larger company’s total market cap is currently set around $145 billion.

Something doesn’t add up there – with that “something” being in Uber’s distinct favor.

It’s equally relevant to point out Uber’s second-quarter trailing 12-month free cash flow, which surpassed $10 billion for the first time. That’s intentional, as the company continues to convert its sizable marketplace into cash.

Uber doesn’t pay a dividend. However, it can repurchase its shares, ultimately increasing remaining shareholders’ percentage of the business.

Every action it’s taken and is taking tells me that this company knows what it’s doing. In which case, Uber isn’t a dinosaur in the making.

It’s still the market leader it was before “robotaxis” ever entered Wall Street’s mind.

Waymo may have superior AV technology. Tesla can have its millions of vehicles. And other competitors will doubtlessly emerge as well.

But Uber has the riders. And the riders are who ultimately pay.

That’s why I’m not asking whether robotaxis will destroy Uber. I’m asking whether Uber can control the marketplace robotaxis want to operate in.

Everything I see so far points to Bill Ackman being right: that this company is a high-quality business trading on the cheap.

That’s why I, for one, just can’t bet against it.

Happy SWAN investing,

Brad Thomas
Editor, The Wide Moat Daily