Greg Abel Invests Over $20B of Berkshire's Cash in Alphabet

Greg Abel, who succeeded Warren Buffett as chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway BRK.B at the end of 2025, has pushed the conglomerate's stake in Alphabet GOOGL past $20 billion, a position that has now overtaken Berkshire's decades-old holding in Coca-Cola KO. It is one of the more notable portfolio shifts in Berkshire's history: Coca-Cola, a Berkshire holding since 1988, has lost its spot among the conglomerate's top three positions for the first time in decades.

The buildup happened in stages. Berkshire's first 13F filing under Abel's leadership showed the Alphabet position roughly tripled in the first quarter of 2026 as the company added tens of millions of Class A and Class C shares. Abel then added further in June, committing billions more to a private placement split across Alphabet's two share classes at a modest discount, tied to Alphabet's own multibillion-dollar capital raise to fund AI infrastructure spending. It marks a clear break from Buffett, who was famously cautious about technology names he felt he didn't fully understand.

The bet leans on Alphabet's cloud and AI momentum, which has been a standout growth driver in recent quarters, alongside the durable profitability of Google's search and advertising business. For investors, the shift is worth watching closely: Berkshire is trading some of the steady, diversified income Coca-Cola provided for concentrated exposure to a single AI-driven technology company. That could pay off if Alphabet's cloud investments keep compounding, but it also means more of Berkshire's fortunes now ride on one company's execution, a departure from Buffett's traditionally diversified, conservative playbook.

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