Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK), a conglomerate run by legendary investor Warren Buffett, now owns a significant stake in Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL).
Buffett or Greg Abel, Berkshire’s vice chairman of non-insurance operations, who will succeed the “Oracle of Omaha” as CEO, likely made the new investment into the tech behemoth.
The conglomerate disclosed a $4.3 billion stake for nearly 18 million shares in Alphabet, the parent company of search engine Google, at the end of the third quarter. The only other tech company that Berkshire has made a major investment in is Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), which the billionaire investor views more as a consumer goods company since it produces smartphones, laptops, and computers.
Back in 2019, Berkshire also made a smaller investment into Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and the conglomerate currently owns $2.2 billion worth of its shares. Shares of Amazon were likely made by Berkshire investment managers Ted Weschler or Todd Combs, who prefer tech companies as investments for Berkshire’s investment portfolio. Either Combs or Weschler could have also encouraged Berkshire to invest in Alphabet.
Buffett has typically invested in companies that produce value and free cash flow, holding the investments for long periods of time and avoiding the higher growth tech companies whose shares are sometimes more volatile and riskier.
Berkshire’s tech investments
Alphabet is now Berkshire’s 10th largest equity investment through the end of September, according to an SEC filing. Shares of the tech company rose by 49.5% year-to-date as the company’s cloud business has benefited from the massive momentum in artificial intelligence deployed by various industries.
Buffett has said previously that he should have invested in Google during its earlier days, since he was aware that its profit margins from advertising were high. Geico, an auto and home insurance company that is owned by Berkshire, became a customer of the popular search engine company. Anytime a potential customer clicked on a Google ad, Geico paid $10 to the tech giant.
“I had seen the product work, and I knew the kind of margins [they had],” Buffett said in 2018. “I didn’t know enough about technology to know whether this really was the one that would stop the competitive race.”
Buffett’s successor
Abel was chosen in 2021 by Buffett, who is now 95, to succeed him when he retires at the start of next year. In May, Berkshire’s board voted for Abel to begin his tenure as CEO of the well-known and highly regarded conglomerate. Buffett will stay on as the chairman of the company.
For over two decades, Abel has worked at the company, serving as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
“I would leave the capital allocation to Greg, and he understands businesses extremely well,” Buffett told shareholders at Berkshire’s annual meeting in May 2024. “If you understand businesses, you’ll understand common stocks.”
Abel will be in charge of Berkshire’s trillion-dollar investment business. The top holding is Apple, valued at $60.7 billion despite Buffett divesting shares of the company by 15%. The second-largest investment is American Express (NYSE: AXP), worth $50.4 billion, followed by Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) valued at $29.3 billion despite Buffett trimming the stake by 6%.
Berkshire’s stake in Apple has been trimmed several times in a move that surprised investors, selling two-thirds of the shares owned by the conglomerate in 2024 and paring back again during the second quarter of 2025.
Investors have been searching for hints on whether Abel will change Berkshire’s long-time investment outlook and strategy after he takes over next year. Neither Buffett nor Abel has provided any clues, but shareholders will likely benefit from their investment decisions.
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