Shares in Alphabet, the owner of Google, were set for a sharp rise on Monday after Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a multibillion-dollar stake in the tech giant — a move likely to be among the last major investment decisions overseen by Warren Buffett.
Alphabet rose 5.5% in pre-market trading after a regulatory filing on Friday revealed that Berkshire owned 17.85 million shares as of September 30, a holding worth $4.93bn at its last closing price.
The investment comes at a time of heightened scrutiny over Big Tech’s escalating AI spending, and just days after “Big Short” investor Michael Burry shut down his hedge fund following public criticism of leading AI companies.
Buffett, who will step down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO at the end of 2025 after more than six decades at the helm, will be succeeded by Greg Abel. It remains unclear whether Buffett himself, or portfolio managers Todd Combs, Ted Weschler, or Abel, initiated the Alphabet purchase — though Buffett is typically responsible for Berkshire’s largest positions.
The investment marks a striking shift for Berkshire, which has traditionally avoided tech stocks. At the 2019 annual shareholder meeting, Buffett and the late vice-chairman Charlie Munger admitted they regretted not buying into Google far earlier.
“We screwed up,” Munger said at the time.
Buffett has long characterised Apple — Berkshire’s single largest holding — as a consumer-products company rather than a pure technology play, making the Alphabet stake an even more notable endorsement of Big Tech at a pivotal moment for the sector.
