Andrew Warren
Alphabet (GOOGL), the parent company of Google, YouTube and Google Cloud, has become the largest single conviction bet in Berkshire Hathaway's newly reshaped portfolio, and shares are trading at 367.03 dollars, up 0.08% on the day, as the market digests just how concentrated that wager has become. The stock sits in a 52 week range of 330.20 to 408.61, giving it a market capitalization of 4.47 trillion dollars.
Data as of 2026-07-08Price 367.03 USD Day change +0.29 (+0.08%) 52-week range 330.2 – 408.61 Market cap $4.47T P/E ratio 33.64 EPS (ttm) 10.91 Dividend yield 0.24% RSI (14) 54.45 Volume 24,052,990
Abel's Rewrite of the Playbook
Greg Abel took the chief executive chair at Berkshire Hathaway on January 1, and the first quarter 13F HR filing submitted to the SEC on May 15, 2026 shows a portfolio that looks nothing like the one he inherited. Abel exited 16 positions outright, cutting the total holdings from 42 names down to 29. That is not a trim, it is a structural reset, and the capital freed up by those exits went almost entirely into one name.
Building the Alphabet Position in Two Waves
The accumulation happened in two distinct steps. During the first quarter, Berkshire more than tripled its existing stake in Alphabet's Class A shares and, notably, opened a brand new position in the Class C shares. By the end of March, the combined holding stood at nearly 58 million shares worth roughly 17 billion dollars, according to the same Q1 2026 filing.
Then came the second wave. On June 1, Alphabet unveiled an 80 billion dollar equity capital raise earmarked for artificial intelligence infrastructure buildout, and Berkshire stepped in as the anchor investor with a 10 billion dollar private placement, per Alphabet's own SEC disclosure. The placement was split evenly: 5 billion dollars in Class A stock priced at 351.81 dollars per share, and 5 billion dollars in Class C stock at 348.20 dollars per share, roughly a 6.5% discount to where Alphabet closed that day.
Where This Leaves Berkshire's Top Holdings
Add the private placement to the open market purchases and Berkshire's total Alphabet exposure now tops 29 billion dollars. That is enough to place it among the conglomerate's five largest equity positions, sitting alongside Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola and Bank of America, and pushing Chevron out of the top tier entirely. For a portfolio built over decades around consumer brands and financials, seeding a top five slot with a mega cap technology company marks a genuine departure in approach.
- Combined Alphabet stake: over 58 million shares, roughly 17 billion dollars by end of Q1
- Private placement: 10 billion dollars, split evenly between Class A and Class C shares
- Total Alphabet exposure: exceeds 29 billion dollars
- Positions exited in Q1: 16, including Domino's, Amazon, Visa, Mastercard and UnitedHealth Group
- Net equity selling in the quarter: approximately 8 billion dollars
Quick Facts
- Price: 367.03 dollars, up 0.08% on the day
- 52 week range: 330.20 to 408.61 dollars
- Market capitalization: 4.47 trillion dollars
- P/E ratio: 33.64
- Dividend yield: 0.24%, RSI at 54.45
The Selling Spree Behind the Buildup
The Alphabet accumulation did not happen in isolation. It ran parallel to one of the most aggressive selling stretches in Berkshire's modern history. Abel fully exited Domino's, Amazon, Visa, Mastercard, UnitedHealth Group and eleven other positions during the quarter. Several of those exits trace directly to the departure of portfolio manager Todd Combs, who left Berkshire for JPMorgan; Abel told the Wall Street Journal in April that he unwound the positions Combs had managed, which accounts for much of the breadth of the selling. The Domino's exit is particularly striking given that Buffett himself built that 3.35 million share stake over six consecutive quarters with no indication it was meant to be temporary. Across the quarter, Berkshire purchased about 16 billion dollars in equities while offloading roughly 24 billion dollars, making it a net seller of about 8 billion dollars overall.
Valuation, Momentum (RSI) and Yield
Alphabet's P/E ratio of 33.64 puts it at a premium to the broader market average, though not an extreme one for a company still scaling AI infrastructure spending at the pace implied by its 80 billion dollar capital raise. The stock's RSI reading of 54.45 sits comfortably in neutral territory, showing neither overbought exhaustion nor oversold capitulation, consistent with a stock trading roughly in the middle third of its 52 week range between 330.20 and 408.61 dollars. The 0.24% dividend yield is modest and reflects a business still prioritizing reinvestment over shareholder income, a profile that will not appeal to yield focused investors regardless of Berkshire's endorsement.
The bull case rests on Berkshire's own conviction: an anchor investment of this size, accepted at a discount to market price, signals confidence in Alphabet's AI infrastructure roadmap and its ability to monetize that spending over time. The bear case centers on concentration risk both for Alphabet, which now carries the weight of funding an 80 billion dollar buildout without a corresponding near term earnings catalyst, and for Berkshire, which has tied more than 29 billion dollars in capital to a single technology name after decades of diversification across financials and consumer staples. Whether Abel's early moves prove prescient will depend heavily on how efficiently that AI infrastructure spending converts into the kind of durable earnings growth that has historically justified Alphabet's valuation multiple.
