Bill Ackman builds a $400 million lab after his daughter's brain hemorrhage — how to protect your family if you're not a billionaire

Ackman said he is contributing 10 million shares of Pershing Square Inc. to fund the institute.

The project follows a medical crisis involving Ackman’s 26-year-old daughter, Lucy, who suffered a massive brain hemorrhage that left her in a coma and unable to walk, speak or see before undergoing emergency surgery that saved her life.

“We will be laser-focused on cures, treatments, devices, rehabilitation and exercise equipment, and targeted and basic research with a goal of massively accelerating the time from idea to innovation to production to helping a patient,” Ackman wrote in a post on X.

Moneywise reached out to Pershing Square for additional comment but did not hear back before publication.

When the mission became personal

Ackman said Lucy was found unconscious in her Brooklyn apartment by her sister, who called 911. Doctors later performed emergency surgery to relieve pressure on her brain.

Her recovery, he said, could eventually involve some of the same technologies now pushing neuroscience into unfamiliar territory, including brain-computer interfaces being developed by companies such as Elon Musk’s Neuralink, Precision Neuroscience, Science Corp, Synchron and Nudge.

Ackman also believes artificial intelligence could accelerate that work.

“The advance of AI in the last few years will also enable us to greatly accelerate our mission,” he wrote. “AI still has a lot to learn about human intelligence and the brain, and the AOI should be at the forefront of the interplay between the brain and AI.”

AI is already moving deeper into medicine. The FDA authorized 258 AI-enabled medical devices in 2025 alone, more than in any previous full year, according to Stanford University’s 2026 AI Index. By the end of the year, the total had reached 1,357 devices across 17 medical specialties.

Building the institute

The idea for the institute actually predates Lucy’s medical emergency.

Ackman said he and Oxman first explored creating a brain-research center about five years ago, after Oxman’s mother died from Alzheimer’s disease. At the time, however, they ultimately concluded that the economics of the project did not work.

Lucy’s hemorrhage changed the equation, giving the couple a far more immediate reason to revisit the idea.

Now, the Ackman Oxman Institute is taking shape across 3.4 acres on Manhattan’s West Side. Its centerpiece is a 400,000-square-foot biotech building on West End Avenue acquired by the Pershing Square Foundation at a significant discount.

The organization is also acquiring a neighboring 130,000-square-foot facility currently used as studio space for Saturday Night Live, along with adjacent parcels.

Together, the campus could eventually stretch to roughly 680,000 square feet.

What to do when a medical crisis hits your family

Ackman can put hundreds of millions of dollars behind the search for better treatments. For most families, however, a medical emergency brings a very different financial problem: figuring out how to pay for the care already being delivered.