(That is the Warren Buffett Watch e-newsletter, information and evaluation on all issues Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. You possibly can join right here to obtain it each Friday night in your inbox.)
Only one week after Berkshire Hathaway’s revelation final Friday that it bought 17.8 million Class A shares of Google’s guardian, Alphabet, within the third quarter (July-September), that place has elevated in market worth by $415 million to virtually $5.35 billion.
GOOGL gained 8.4% this week whereas its greatest tech rivals fell considerably as Nvidia’s sturdy earnings failed to beat fears of an “AI bubble.”
Alphabet shares began the week with a 3.1% enhance on Monday, apparently in response to the information of Berkshire’s buy.
Wednesday’s launch of Google’s new Gemini 3 AI mannequin, which is receiving optimistic evaluations, gave the inventory one other push larger.
(Google’s AI momentum is reportedly starting to fret Sam Altman at OpenAI.)
Whereas the total analysis of the transfer clearly cannot be made till months or years from now, somebody in Omaha might be smiling proper now.
Warren Buffett is getting the credit score in plenty of headlines, as he often does, with many publications assuming he’s chargeable for every little thing Berkshire does.
We all know that is not the case, nevertheless, since portfolio managers Ted Weschler and Todd Combs are capable of act as “free brokers.”
As I famous final week, Alphabet would not really feel like Buffett’s “sort of inventory.”
CNBC.com’s Yun Li writes the funding “probably” was the work of Weschler or Coombs, noting they’ve been behind lots of Berkshire’s “tech-leaning” investments, together with its Amazon stake, now value $2.2 billion.
(Even earlier than that place was first disclosed in 2019, Buffett went out of his technique to inform CNBC’s Becky Fast it wasn’t his resolution and “no persona change has taken place.”)
Warren Buffett and Greg Abel walkthrough the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Assembly in Omaha, Nebraska on Might 3, 2025.
David A. Grogen | CNBC
Bloomberg Opinion columnist Nir Kaissar recollects Buffett’s well-known refusal to spend money on a enterprise he would not absolutely perceive, which saved him out of the web bubble within the late Nineties, calling AI “orders of magnitude extra difficult than promoting books or pet meals on-line.”
He provides, “Mix opaque expertise with premium valuations, and also you’re certain to lose Buffett.”
Kaissar says he has the impression CEO-designate Greg Abel could have simply proven us a “very totally different method than Berkshire’s shareholders are used to – notably, a brand new willingness to pay extra now for doubtlessly larger development down the street, an opportunity Buffett not often took, if ever.”
Berkshire has not responded to my noon e mail asking for clarification on who determined to make the Alphabet buy. The corporate virtually by no means reveals who purchased what.
BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET
Some hyperlinks could require a subscription:
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ARCHIVE
Buffett on what ‘understanding’ a enterprise means (2000)
Warren Buffett explains that when he says he would not perceive tech shares, he means he would not perceive the place the tech business might be in ten years.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: When it comes to these tech shares, you say that you do not perceive them… I am unable to think about you not understanding one thing.
WARREN BUFFETT: Oh, we perceive the product. We perceive what it does for individuals. We simply do not know the economics of it 10 years from now.
That, I imply, you’ll be able to perceive all types — you’ll be able to perceive metal. You possibly can perceive house constructing. However should you have a look at a house builder and attempt to assume the place it is going to be in 5 or 10 years, the economics of it, that is one other query.
I imply, it is not a query of understanding the product they prove or the means they use to distribute it, all of these form of issues. It is the predictability of the economics of the scenario 10 years out. And that — that is our downside.
BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH
BRK.A inventory worth: $755,320.00
BRK.B inventory worth: $504.04
BRK.B P/E (TTM): 16.12
Berkshire market capitalization: $1,085,818,736,612
Berkshire Money as of September 30: $381.7 billion (Up 10.9% from June 30
Excluding Rail Money and Subtracting T-Payments Payable: $354.3 billion (Up 4.3% from June 30)
No Berkshire inventory repurchases since Might 2024.
(All figures are as of the date of publication, until in any other case indicated)
BERKSHIRE’S TOP EQUITY HOLDINGS – Nov. 21, 2025
Berkshire’s prime holdings of disclosed publicly traded shares within the U.S. and Japan, by market worth, based mostly on in the present day’s closing costs.
Holdings are as of September 30, 2025, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F submitting on November 14, 2025, apart from:
The total listing of holdings and present market values is accessible from CNBC.com’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
Please ship any questions or feedback concerning the e-newsletter to me at [email protected]. (Sorry, however we do not ahead questions or feedback to Buffett himself.)
In the event you aren’t already subscribed to this text, you’ll be able to join right here.
Additionally, Buffett’s annual letters to shareholders are extremely really useful studying. There are collected right here on Berkshire’s web site.
— Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch
