Greg Abel Built a $31 Billion Berkshire Stake in Alphabet

1 month ago 27

Patrick Sanders, The Motley Fool

Fri, July 10, 2026 astatine 9:20 AM CDT 4 min read

It didn't instrumentality Greg Abel agelong to propulsion his chips to the mediate of the array erstwhile betting connected Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL). The caller CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA) (NYSE: BRKB) inherited a comparatively caller presumption successful the AI and tech institution erstwhile helium took implicit for Warren Buffett astatine the opening of 2026. He has since expanded connected that investment, portion astatine the aforesaid clip trimming Berkshire's vaunted portfolio of respective unwanted stocks.

Now Berkshire Hathaway has a $31.1 cardinal involvement successful Alphabet, a important concern for a institution that it didn't adjacent ain a twelvemonth ago. Alphabet makes up much than 9% of the conglomerate's full $342 cardinal concern portfolio.

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Here's however helium did it -- and wherever Alphabet appears to beryllium headed next.

Logos of Berkshire Hathaway and Alphabet, broadside by side

Berkshire's purchases of Alphabet

Berkshire Hathaway archetypal opened its presumption successful Alphabet banal successful the 3rd 4th of 2025. It was portion of a strategy by Buffett, the legendary Oracle of Omaha, to shed the company's overly dense presumption successful Apple. The archetypal acquisition was for 17.86 cardinal shares and was valued astatine $5.18 billion.

The acquisition was good timed; Alphabet has been a prima successful the market. We don't cognize precisely what time Buffett had Berkshire unfastened its position, but we cognize that since the extremity of the 3rd quarter, Alphabet banal is up astir 50%. That means an concern of $5.18 billion, made astatine the extremity of the 3rd quarter, would beryllium worthy $7.68 cardinal today.

But Abel, who took implicit aft Buffett retired, didn't halt there. In the archetypal quarter, helium had Berkshire bargain different 36.4 cardinal shares of Alphabet. And past helium purchased $10 cardinal successful shares successful a backstage placement arsenic Alphabet sought to rise $80 cardinal to money its AI build-out.

The backstage placement had Berkshire Hathaway buying $5 cardinal successful Class A banal astatine $351.81 per share, and $5 cardinal successful Alphabet's Class C banal astatine $348.20 per share. Both of those were a 6.5% discount from the closing prices that day. So Berkshire Hathaway present owns 68,462,015 shares of Alphabet Class A banal and 17,944,778 shares of Alphabet Class C stock. The full worth of those shares is $31.17 billion.

All this happened arsenic Abel greatly shrank Berkshire's portfolio, exiting 16 positions to trim the fig of holdings to 29.

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