The Cocktail Report (sound really smart around your friends):
Bill Ackman and Neri Oxman seeded a Manhattan brain, rehabilitation and longevity institute with Pershing Square shares worth about $400 million, and plan a second gift about as large or larger.
On September 24, the institute and Pershing Square co-led a $250 million round for Precision Neuroscience, a brain-implant company now valued at just over $1 billion.
Their combined share of that round was $42.5 million.
The mitochondria eye treatment given to Ackman's daughter is one patient, reported in a preprint, and the improvement wore off within roughly a month.
A UC Davis stem cell scientist calls mitochondria transplants for longevity "mostly hype" so far.
If you have been offered an IV drip or a supplement that promises to "recharge" your mitochondria, a billionaire's new institute is about to make that pitch sound more credible than it is. Here is what the institute is doing with its money, and what the science behind the story does and does not support.
Mitochondria are the small structures inside cells that turn food and oxygen into usable energy. Their performance declines with age, which is why they draw so much attention from longevity researchers.
How it started
In February, Ackman's 26-year-old daughter Lucy collapsed at home in Brooklyn from a massive brain hemorrhage. She spent weeks in a coma, and the injury left her unable to see.
In May, under emergency FDA authorization, Mount Sinai doctors harvested mitochondria from a thigh muscle biopsy and injected them into both of her eyes. Her pupils began reacting to light, and she reported shapes and shadows in her left eye, but the improvement wore off within roughly a month.
We covered that procedure in detail when it was first reported. What is new is where the family's money is going.
The institute
On August 19, Ackman unveiled the Ackman Oxman Institute (AOI), seeded with 10 million Pershing Square shares worth close to $400 million. He wrote that the goal is "the world's greatest brain research, rehabilitation, recovery, human optimization, and longevity institute."
It will be a nonprofit with its own venture arm, built to start and fund companies and put the returns back into research. Its board includes Regeneron co-founder George Yancopoulos, Nobel laureate James Rothman, and inventor Dean Kamen.
The campus sits on Manhattan's Upper West Side, where Ackman's foundation paid $191 million for a mostly vacant biotech building of 400,000 square feet. With added buildings and construction, the campus could grow to 680,000 square feet.
The first big check
On September 24, Precision Neuroscience said the institute and Pershing Square co-led its $250 million funding round. According to The New York Times, the two put in $42.5 million combined.
Precision makes a thin electrode film that rests on the brain's surface to read nerve signals, a brain-computer interface, meaning a device that lets the brain control a computer directly. The company reports more than 100 patient procedures, and the FDA has cleared its Layer 7 implant.
That is a bet on helping injured brains communicate and move. It is not a longevity bet.
What the mitochondria science supports
If you saw this summer's headlines about a billionaire's daughter and a daring eye treatment, here is the scale of the evidence. It is one patient, described in a preprint, meaning a report posted before any outside expert review.
Paul Knoepfler, a stem cell biologist at UC Davis, wrote on September 24 that using mitochondria transplants against aging is "mostly hype" so far. He warned that some clinics already sell IV infusions, pills and peptides under names like "mitotherapy," which he likened to snake oil.
He also noted that the FDA would likely treat any mitochondria transplant as a drug requiring formal approval, even using your own tissue. No such product is approved.
The bigger money picture
Ackman is joining a crowded field of private funders. Sam Altman put $180 million into Retro Biosciences, a company whose goal is ten extra years of average human life, and Altos Labs launched claiming $3 billion from backers including Yuri Milner.
Large gifts can move a field quickly. They do not turn one patient into proof.
Why Should You Care?
A $400 million institute will fund real brain rehabilitation work, and its first big check went to a device already in patients. If anyone sells you a mitochondria treatment for aging, remember that the best-known case involves one person, and her gains did not last.
1. Mia Osmonbekov. "Bill Ackman's $400 million brain institute was inspired by his daughter, and built outside elite universities, which he says are losing talent." Fortune, August 20, 2026. https://fortune.com/2026/08/20/bill-ackman-brain-institute/
2. "Precision Neuroscience Closes Oversubscribed $250M Series D Led by Pershing Square Inc., the Ackman Oxman Institute, and a Leading Life Sciences Investment Fund." GlobeNewswire via Yahoo Finance, September 24, 2026. https://finance.yahoo.com/healthcare/articles/precision-neuroscience-closes-oversubscribed-250m-120000008.html
3. Lauren Hirsch. "Investors Are Betting On Devices That Connect the Brain to Computers." The New York Times, September 24, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/business/dealbook/precision-neuroscience-brain-bill-ackman.html
4. Eric Berger. "After a Family Health Crisis, Bill Ackman Takes a Startup Approach to Brain Research." Observer, September 18, 2026. https://observer.com/2026/09/bill-ackman-launch-brain-research-institute-manhattan/
5. Paul Knoepfler. "Mitochondrial transfer or 'mitotherapy' for disease & longevity: how much real hope vs. hype?" The Niche, September 24, 2026. https://ipscell.com/2026/09/mitochondrial-transfer-or-mitotherapy-for-disease-longevity-how-much-real-hope-vs-hype/
6. Elizabeth Dwoskin. "She lost her sight. Her billionaire father bet on a daring new treatment." The Washington Post, September 6, 2026. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/09/06/she-lost-her-sight-her-billionaire-father-bet-daring-new-treatment/
7. Antonio Regalado. "Sam Altman invested $180 million into a company trying to delay death." MIT Technology Review, March 8, 2023. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/03/08/1069523/sam-altman-investment-180-million-retro-biosciences-longevity-death/
