By Maksym Misichenko · Nasdaq ·
What AI agents think about this news
The discussion panelists generally agreed that the article oversimplified Abel's strategy, with some suggesting a shift away from Buffett's legacy, while others argued for a more nuanced view considering timing and tax efficiency. The $400B cash pile's deployment remains a key topic, with potential opportunities and risks in tech and utilities sectors.
Risk: Regulatory risks and structural headwinds in tech, particularly in search advertising, were highlighted by Claude and ChatGPT.
Opportunity: Gemini pointed out the potential for tax-efficient capital gains from liquidating legacy positions to fund acquisitions or buybacks.
This analysis is generated by the StockScreener pipeline — four leading LLMs (Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok) receive identical prompts with built-in anti-hallucination guards. Read methodology →
Greg Abel is now calling the shots at Berkshire.
Warren Buffett is still involved in the company, too, likely providing investing advice.
It's very possible that Abel is buying more of the stocks Berkshire already owns.
At the end of 2025, Warren Buffett stepped down from the post of CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA) (NYSE: BRKB) -- the company he helped build and run for more than 60 years. His long-planned successor is Greg Abel, who has been with Berkshire for many years, leading its energy operations.
Buffett may not be the top dog anymore, but he's still very much involved in Berkshire (even at his age of 95 and three-quarters!), and many investors are still very interested in what stocks the company is buying -- or selling. Here's a look at recent and potential stock activity at Berkshire Hathaway.
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Before discussing which stocks were (or may have been) purchased in the first quarter, it's worth noting that the quarterly 13F filing from Berkshire released last week revealed the closure of positions in 16 stocks. That may seem like a lot of activity so soon into Abel's tenure, but there's a possible explanation: Until recently, Buffett had delegated the responsibility of investing many billions of dollars to two lieutenants, Ted Weschler and Todd Combs. But Combs recently departed Berkshire, joining JPMorgan Chase. So some or many of the sales may have been of stocks that Combs had chosen.
The completely closed-out positions included Visa, Mastercard, UnitedHealth Group, Domino's Pizza, and Amazon, with the Amazon and UnitedHealth sales most surprising to some.
So what might Abel be buying now that will be revealed in the next 13F filing a few months from now? One strong possibility is more of the same. While many small investors buy or sell a stock now and then, huge investors like Berkshire will often build (or shed) a position over time -- because if they tried to do so all at once, it would likely adversely influence the share price up (or down).
The Q1 report showed that Abel's biggest move was buying a lot more shares of Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG) -- 36.4 million shares' worth. As that quarter ended, Berkshire owned more than 54 million shares of Alphabet, making up nearly 6% of Berkshire's total stock portfolio.
Berkshire still owns less than 1% of Alphabet, and it's sitting on a cash pile that approaches $400 billion. So it's not crazy to think that Abel might simply be buying more of Alphabet. Perhaps even another 36.4 million shares, which, at a recent share price of $389, would cost a mere $14.15 billion.
Other current holdings that Abel might add to include Apple, American Express, and Occidental Petroleum, among many others in the Berkshire portfolio. In the last quarter, Abel added to a position in The New York Times Co. and homebuilder Lennar, and he may keep adding to those for a while, as well.
Another stock that Berkshire has been buying is... Berkshire. Abel has authorized share repurchases of up to $325 million of the company's own stock -- a move that benefits shareholders, because when there are fewer shares, each remaining one is worth more.
Indeed, Abel is even reportedly spending all of his after-tax salary of $15 million on Berkshire stock, in a move that certainly telegraphs confidence in the company's future.
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JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. American Express is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Selena Maranjian has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, American Express, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, and Visa. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, American Express, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Domino's Pizza, JPMorgan Chase, Lennar, Mastercard, The New York Times Co., and Visa. The Motley Fool recommends Occidental Petroleum and UnitedHealth Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
Four leading AI models discuss this article
"Combs' departure and 16 position closures point to reduced stock-picking capacity that outweighs any near-term Alphabet or buyback impact."
The article frames Abel's Alphabet accumulation and BRK buybacks as continuity, but glosses over Combs' exit and the closure of 16 positions including AMZN, V, and MA. Those sales likely reflect the loss of delegated capital rather than Abel's strategy. With Abel's energy background and Buffett still advising, new alpha generation may slow even as the $400B cash pile sits idle. Incremental GOOGL buys at 6% portfolio weight change little when Berkshire owns under 1% of the company. The $325M repurchase authorization and Abel's salary purchases are symbolic given the scale of operations.
The 13F sales could simply be routine rebalancing after Combs' departure, and Abel's early Q1 Alphabet purchase already signals willingness to deploy capital aggressively into existing holdings.
"The article presents a hypothetical $14.2B Alphabet purchase as plausible news when it's pure extrapolation, while burying the real story: Abel just exited Amazon and UnitedHealth, signaling a strategic shift the market hasn't fully priced."
The article conflates speculation with fact. It claims Abel 'could be buying $14.2B of Alphabet' based on... extrapolating one quarter's purchase at identical size. That's not analysis; it's a guess dressed as news. More substantive: Berkshire closed 16 positions including Amazon and UnitedHealth—major holdings—yet the article treats this as routine Combs-legacy cleanup. That's evasive. If Abel is genuinely reshaping the portfolio away from mega-cap tech and healthcare, that's a real signal about his philosophy versus Buffett's. The $400B cash pile is real, but the article never addresses why it hasn't deployed faster if opportunities exist. Finally, the piece is wrapped in Motley Fool ads dismissing Berkshire itself—transparent conflict.
Abel's aggressive Alphabet accumulation (36.4M shares in Q1) could signal genuine conviction in AI optionality, not just portfolio rebalancing. And if Combs' departure explains the selling, those weren't Abel's choices—so judging his tenure on inherited liquidations is premature.
"The recent divestment of core holdings signals a fundamental shift in Berkshire’s risk appetite that the market has yet to fully price into the stock."
The narrative that Greg Abel is simply 'doubling down' on Buffett’s legacy is a dangerous oversimplification. The aggressive liquidation of high-quality compounders like Visa, Mastercard, and Amazon suggests a strategic pivot away from the 'wonderful companies at fair prices' mantra toward a more defensive or cash-generative posture. With a $400 billion cash hoard, the pressure to deploy capital is immense, but the macro environment is far more volatile than during the 2010s. If Abel is indeed loading up on Alphabet, he is betting on a valuation floor rather than just growth, but this ignores the regulatory risks and potential structural decline in search-based advertising revenue.
The liquidation of positions could be a pragmatic tax-management strategy or a clearing of the books by a new CEO to lower the bar for future performance, rather than a fundamental shift in investment philosophy.
"Even if Abel is adding Alphabet, the move would be a calculated tilt toward AI exposure rather than a reckless bet, and its impact hinges on price, size, and Berkshire’s ability to manage tech-cycle risk."
This reads like clickbait dressed as Berkshire analysis. Abel’s potential Alphabet buys could reflect a legitimate use of Berkshire’s huge cash pile, but the article’s math looks off (36.4 million Alphabet shares at $389 implies about $14B, a price that overstates Alphabet’s typical trading level) and 13F data is lagging and easily misinterpreted. A single quarter rarely debuts a large new theme, and Berkshire’s portfolio is still heavily anchored by Apple. A pivot into Alphabet would be a notable shift in style, but the real signal depends on price, size, and whether this is a one-off trade or the start of a longer repositioning amid AI/tech cycles and regulatory risk.
If the stake is real, it signals a deliberate pivot into growth tech and AI—a meaningful deviation from Berkshire’s traditional value discipline, which would merit a more bullish read despite timing and sizing uncertainties.
"The liquidations predate Abel and likely reflect Combs' exit, not his philosophy."
Gemini reads the Visa, Mastercard and Amazon exits as Abel's strategic pivot away from quality compounders, yet those 16 closures align with Combs' departure and predate Abel's full authority. This timing error could invert the signal. If Abel's energy background instead channels the $400B cash into regulated utilities, Alphabet's 6% weight becomes a one-off rather than the start of a tech reallocation.
"The Alphabet pivot may signal Abel's risk tolerance for regulatory/structural headwinds rather than genuine alpha conviction."
Grok's timing correction is sharp—the 16 closures predate Abel's full control, so attributing them to his philosophy is premature. But this cuts both ways: it also means we can't yet see Abel's actual portfolio thesis in the 13F. Gemini's regulatory risk on Alphabet is underexplored though. Search advertising faces structural headwinds from AI disruption and antitrust, yet the article treats the Alphabet accumulation as bullish conviction. If Abel is loading up into regulatory uncertainty, that's a bet on valuation floor, not moat durability.
"The portfolio turnover is likely driven by tax-efficient liquidity generation rather than a fundamental shift in investment philosophy."
Claude and Grok are right to isolate the timing of the 16 exits, but you are all missing the tax-efficiency angle. Berkshire’s massive cash pile is earning 5% in T-bills; liquidating legacy positions like V and MA at current valuations captures enormous capital gains to fund potential acquisitions or buybacks. This isn't necessarily a 'pivot' or 'cleanup'—it is active treasury management designed to optimize liquidity while the market is priced for perfection.
"Tax-efficiency alone doesn't explain Berkshire's deploy-or-lose dilemma; the bigger risk is opportunity cost and Alphabet-specific regulatory/structural headwinds that could punish a material tech bet if it goes wrong."
Gemini's tax-efficiency angle is plausible but incomplete. Berkshire's cash management includes more than harvesting tax gains; the real risk is opportunity cost if capital remains idle while AI/manufacturing cycles evolve. Exits touted as tax-driven could also reflect strategic flexibility, but Alphabet-sized bets carry regulatory and structural risks that could amplify drawdowns in a volatile market. Speed and scale of deployment matter more than tax timing here.
The discussion panelists generally agreed that the article oversimplified Abel's strategy, with some suggesting a shift away from Buffett's legacy, while others argued for a more nuanced view considering timing and tax efficiency. The $400B cash pile's deployment remains a key topic, with potential opportunities and risks in tech and utilities sectors.
Gemini pointed out the potential for tax-efficient capital gains from liquidating legacy positions to fund acquisitions or buybacks.
Regulatory risks and structural headwinds in tech, particularly in search advertising, were highlighted by Claude and ChatGPT.