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<\/p>\nBill Ackman and his wife, designer and entrepreneur Neri Oxman, are donating approximately $400 million in Pershing Square stock to launch the Ackman Oxman Institute (AOI), a new Manhattan neuroscience and longevity center aimed at accelerating brain research into clinical treatments. The billionaire hedge fund manager announced the initiative on August 19 via a lengthy post on X, describing it as a \u201cbet on the brain\u201d that will combine research, rehabilitation, clinical trials, and longevity science under one campus on Manhattan\u2019s West Side.<\/p>\n
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The project grew from a family crisis that reshaped Ackman\u2019s philanthropic priorities. His 26-year-old daughter Lucy suffered a massive brain hemorrhage in February and was found unconscious in her Brooklyn apartment after lying there for more than 15 hours. She underwent emergency surgery, including a hemicraniectomy to relieve pressure on her brain, and spent several weeks in a coma before beginning rehabilitation. Months of her treatment and recovery convinced Ackman and Oxman that the brain\u2019s capacity to heal far exceeded what existing medical infrastructure could deliver\u2014and that a dedicated, well-funded institute could accelerate that progress.<\/p>\n
Ackman\u2019s stated mission for AOI is ambitious: \u201cto build the world\u2019s greatest brain research, rehabilitation, recovery, human optimization, and longevity institute.\u201d The institute will operate as a nonprofit but with \u201chighly commercial instincts,\u201d running its own venture fund, seeding companies around technologies developed on campus, and reinvesting financial returns into further research. Unlike traditional academic centers focused on publishing papers, AOI will be explicitly patient-centric, prioritizing the speed from discovery to treatments, devices, and cures.<\/p>\n
The institute\u2019s physical footprint underscores that ambition. The Pershing Square Foundation acquired a nearly vacant 400,000-square-foot biotech facility on Manhattan\u2019s West Side after a real estate colleague alerted Ackman to the property in May. The foundation has also secured an adjoining 130,000-square-foot building under contract and is acquiring a neighboring vacant lot. With additional construction permitted under current zoning, the campus could expand to 680,000 square feet\u2014larger than Rockefeller University\u2019s laboratory footprint.<\/p>\n
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Ackman has committed to a second donation of similar or potentially greater size, and the institute has already identified a CEO expected to be announced by October. The board includes inventor Dean Kamen (whom Ackman described as \u201cour generation\u2019s Thomas Edison\u201d), Regeneron co-founder and chief scientific officer George Yancopoulos, Nobel Prize-winning biochemist James Rothman, neuroscientist Bernardo Sabatini, and Lucy\u2019s own neurosurgeon, Chris Kellner.<\/p>\n
Why Now: The Case Against Universities<\/p>\n
Five years ago, Ackman and Oxman considered launching a brain institute but abandoned the idea, citing prohibitive Manhattan real estate costs and the belief that it would be \u201ctoo difficult to recruit the best talent from universities.\u201d The equation has shifted, Ackman argued. Real estate became available at a 70% discount, and universities have become \u201ca much less attractive place to work,\u201d he wrote, citing campus politics, antisemitism, and declining funding as factors eroding their appeal to elite researchers.<\/p>\n
This argument reflects Ackman\u2019s broader critique of elite universities. He led pressure campaigns against former Harvard president Claudine Gay, criticized Harvard\u2019s handling of antisemitism and its diversity policies, and called for the removal of board members. Now, with AOI, he is betting that independent, well-funded institutes can outcompete universities for top talent\u2014a wager backed by hundreds of millions of dollars and a personal mission tied to his daughter\u2019s recovery.<\/p>\n