What Berkshire's huge wager on Alphabet says about Warren Buffett's post-CEO role
Warren Buffett may no longer be Berkshire Hathaway CEO, but its Alphabet wager has all his hallmarks.Berkshire's third-largest stock bet on June 30 was an almost $38 billion stake in the tech titan.Berkshire recently reported its biggest quarter for stock purchases and buybacks in years.Warren Buffett has left the stage at Berkshire Hathaway, but he may still be pulling strings from behind the curtain.The legendary investor, who ended his six-decade run as Berkshire's CEO at the turn of the year, is likely responsible for building the company a huge Alphabet stake from scratch in under 12 months.Berkshire owned about 106 million Alphabet shares worth nearly $38 billion at the end of June, its quarterly portfolio update revealed on Friday.Buffett, who turns 96 later this month, said in a July interview that he initiated the position during the third quarter of 2025. It was Berkshire's third-largest stock holding on June 30, behind only Apple and American Express.Buffett may have handed Berkshire's reins to Greg Abel, but given his comments and the sheer scale of the Alphabet stake, it seems likely that he's involved with what could be the final major investment of his career.David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland who blogs about Berkshire, told Business Insider that he believes Buffett is "still largely managing Berkshire's stock portfolio" along with his investment manager, Ted Weschler."He comes into the office every day, and investments are his primary interest," Kass said.Berkshire Hathaway did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The appeal of AlphabetAlphabet's $4.2 trillion market capitalization makes it one of the world's most valuable companies.
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Warren Buffett may no longer be Berkshire Hathaway CEO, but its Alphabet wager has all his hallmarks.Berkshire's third-largest stock bet on June 30 was an almost $38 billion stake in the tech titan.Berkshire recently reported its biggest quarter for stock purchases and buybacks in years.Warren Buffett has left the stage at Berkshire Hathaway, but he may still be pulling strings from behind the curtain.The legendary investor, who ended his six-decade run as Berkshire's CEO at the turn of the year, is likely responsible for building the company a huge Alphabet stake from scratch in under 12 months.Berkshire owned about 106 million Alphabet shares worth nearly $38 billion at the end of June, its quarterly portfolio update revealed on Friday.Buffett, who turns 96 later this month, said in a July interview that he initiated the position during the third quarter of 2025. It was Berkshire's third-largest stock holding on June 30, behind only Apple and American Express.Buffett may have handed Berkshire's reins to Greg Abel, but given his comments and the sheer scale of the Alphabet stake, it seems likely that he's involved with what could be the final major investment of his career.David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland who blogs about Berkshire, told Business Insider that he believes Buffett is "still largely managing Berkshire's stock portfolio" along with his investment manager, Ted Weschler."He comes into the office every day, and investments are his primary interest," Kass said.Berkshire Hathaway did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The appeal of AlphabetAlphabet's $4.2 trillion market capitalization makes it one of the world's most valuable companies. Its stock price has jumped nearly 70% over the past year, and has more than tripled since May 2023, as investors have wagered it will be one of the biggest victors of the AI boom.Buffett told CNBC in July that Alphabet was "more likely to be a winner based on their record than probably 95% of what gets merchandised through Wall Street."But he also flagged the hundreds of billions of dollars that Alphabet and its peers are pouring into the AI infrastructure buildout."That's real money," he said. "That's the game they're playing now."Buffett has historically eschewed tech companies as they're outside his circle of competence, often trade at sky-high valuations, and he finds it hard to gauge their long-term prospects given the fast pace of progress and fierce competition in the tech industry.It's not fully clear why the "Oracle of Omaha" — who refrained from spending Berkshire's cash on stocks, acquisitions, and buybacks for years because they didn't strike him as offering good value for money — decided it was finally time to bet big on Alphabet."Buffett probably believes that Alphabet's size and leadership role in search, advertising, the cloud, and YouTube provide a moat or a durable competitive advantage," Kass said.Michael Burry, the investor of "The Big Short" fame, labeled Alphabet the "value investor's favorite" in a rare podcast interview last December.Buffett made Apple the cornerstone of Berkshire's stock portfolio after determining it was fundamentally a consumer-electronics company, and realizing how indispensable its products were to its customers.Firing on all cylindersRamping up the Alphabet position, partly through a $10 billion private placement at a discount to the market price in June, was one of several proactive moves by Berkshire last quarter.The owner of Geico, Fruit of the Loom, and the BNSF Railway purchased a net $23.5 billion of stocks in three months, largely thanks to its Alphabet wager.
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- Warren Buffett may no longer be Berkshire Hathaway CEO, but its Alphabet wager has all his hallmarks.Berkshire's third-largest stock bet on June 30 was an almost $38 billion stake in the tech titan.Berkshire recently reported its biggest quarter for stock purchases and buybacks in years.Warren Buffett has left the stage at Berkshire Hathaway, but he may still be pulling strings from behind the curtain.The legendary investor, who ended his six-decade run as Berkshire's CEO at the turn of the year, is likely responsible for building the company a huge Alphabet stake from scratch in under 12 months.Berkshire owned about 106 million Alphabet shares worth nearly $38 billion at the end of June, its quarterly portfolio update revealed on Friday.Buffett, who turns 96 later this month, said in a July interview that he initiated the position during the third quarter of 2025. It was Berkshire's third-largest stock holding on June 30, behind only Apple and American Express.Buffett may have handed Berkshire's reins to Greg Abel, but given his comments and the sheer scale of the Alphabet stake, it seems likely that he's involved with what could be the final major investment of his career.David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland who blogs about Berkshire, told Business Insider that he believes Buffett is "still largely managing Berkshire's stock portfolio" along with his investment manager, Ted Weschler."He comes into the office every day, and investments are his primary interest," Kass said.Berkshire Hathaway did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The appeal of AlphabetAlphabet's $4.2 trillion market capitalization makes it one of the world's most valuable companies.
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What Berkshire's huge wager on Alphabet says about Warren Buffett's post-CEO role
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