Berkshire Hathaway has accumulated a $29 billion position in Alphabet since the third quarter of 2025, a pace that accelerated after Greg Abel assumed the chief executive role in January. The conglomerate now holds over $23 billion in Class A shares and roughly $6 billion in Class C shares, making the search giant one of its largest equity holdings. The buildup coincides with Alphabet’s own $80 billion share sale in June, earmarked for artificial intelligence infrastructure, of which Berkshire took $10 billion in a private placement.
The buildup in three tranches
Berkshire opened the position in the third quarter of 2025 with about 18 million shares while Warren Buffett was still chief executive, though the source notes Abel likely influenced the decision given what followed. In the first quarter of 2026, Berkshire added 40 million more shares. Then in June, Alphabet sold $10 billion of stock to Berkshire as part of its broader $80 billion raise: $5 billion of GOOGL at $351.81 per share and $5 billion of GOOG at $348.20 per share. The private placement gave Berkshire a fixed entry price while Alphabet secured a known buyer for a chunk of its AI funding.
The AI rationale
The source cites Alphabet’s cloud infrastructure position, third globally with a 14 percent share as of the first quarter of 2026, as a pillar of the thesis. Companies use that cloud to build AI applications and agents. Alphabet also designs its own chips, used internally and by customers including Apple and Anthropic, and is developing a new server chip, Frozen v2, to run its Gemini models more efficiently. Berkshire’s continued buying is framed as a signal of confidence in Alphabet’s AI leadership, not merely in the technology itself.
The valuation argument
At a $4.1 trillion market capitalization, Alphabet hardly looks like a traditional value play. The source argues Berkshire sees a disconnect around capital expenditure: Alphabet plans to spend $195 billion to $205 billion in 2026, and some investors doubt the return on that infrastructure will justify the outlay. Abel’s willingness to add at current prices suggests he believes the market is underpricing the long-term payoff. Whether that conviction is vindicated depends on whether AI demand absorbs the capacity Alphabet is building, a question the market has not yet answered.