Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) CEO Greg Abel increases stake in AI stock

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, makes most of its money from search advertising, YouTube and its Google Cloud business, but it is now also the biggest bet in Berkshire Hathaway's stock portfolio under new chief executive Greg Abel. Shares of Alphabet Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL) traded at 367.03 dollars, up 0.08% on the day, giving the company a market capitalization of 4.47 trillion dollars.

Abel took the CEO chair on January 1 and moved quickly to overhaul Berkshire's holdings. Berkshire's first quarter 2026 13F HR filing, submitted to the SEC on May 15, 2026, showed he exited 16 positions outright, trimming the portfolio from 42 stocks down to 29. Much of the freed up capital went into one name: Alphabet.

How Berkshire Built Its Alphabet Stake

The buildup happened in two distinct steps. During the first quarter, Berkshire more than tripled its Alphabet Class A holding and started a fresh position in Class C shares, pushing the combined stake to nearly 58 million shares worth roughly 17 billion dollars by the end of March, according to that same 13F filing.

Then on June 1, Alphabet unveiled an 80 billion dollar equity raise meant to fund its artificial intelligence infrastructure buildout. Berkshire signed on as anchor investor with a 10 billion dollar private placement, split evenly: 5 billion dollars in Class A stock priced at 351.81 dollars per share and 5 billion dollars in Class C stock priced at 348.20 dollars per share, both roughly 6.5% below Alphabet's closing price that day, according to Alphabet's SEC disclosure.

Add the open market purchases to the private placement and Berkshire's total Alphabet exposure now tops 29 billion dollars, ranking among its five largest holdings alongside Apple, American Express, Coca Cola and Bank of America. Chevron fell out of the top five as a result.

Alphabet Valuation, Momentum and Yield

Alphabet trades at a price to earnings ratio of 33.64, with earnings per share reflecting a company still expanding despite its size. The stock has ranged between 330.20 dollars and 408.61 dollars over the past 52 weeks, and at 367.03 dollars it sits roughly in the middle of that band, well off both extremes. The relative strength index reads 54.45, a neutral to mildly bullish signal that suggests neither overbought nor oversold conditions. The dividend yield stands at just 0.24%, reflecting a company still prioritizing reinvestment, including the AI infrastructure spending that prompted the recent capital raise, over cash returns to shareholders.

The bull case rests on Alphabet's dominance in search and its growing cloud and AI businesses, along with Berkshire's vote of confidence at a price below market. The bear case centers on the sheer scale of AI capital spending, regulatory scrutiny of Google's advertising and search practices, and a valuation that, while not extreme for a mega cap tech name, leaves less room for error than cheaper peers.

Selling Spree Ran Alongside the Alphabet Buildup

Abel's Alphabet accumulation came during one of the more aggressive selling stretches in Berkshire's recent history. He fully exited Domino's, Amazon, Visa, Mastercard, UnitedHealth Group and eleven other positions in the first quarter, according to Fortune's reporting.

Several exits trace back to portfolio manager Todd Combs, who left Berkshire for JPMorgan; Abel told the Wall Street Journal in April that he sold the positions Combs had managed. The Domino's exit is notable because Buffett built that 3.35 million share stake over six straight quarters with no indication it was meant to be temporary. Overall, Berkshire was a net seller of about 8 billion dollars in equities during the quarter, buying roughly 16 billion dollars worth of stock while selling about 24 billion dollars, according to Yahoo Finance.

What Comes Next for Berkshire's Alphabet Position

Abel's early moves signal a willingness to concentrate risk in fewer, larger bets rather than spread capital across dozens of names. Whether the Alphabet stake keeps growing, or whether Berkshire holds steady after committing nearly 30 billion dollars, will say a lot about how Abel intends to run the portfolio going forward.