Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA, BRKB) reported second-quarter results on Aug. 8 and, as usual, offered little explanation for its investment decisions. But the shifting weights of two top holdings — Apple (AAPL) and Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) — are making the statement for the conglomerate.
Under Warren Buffett, technology stocks largely sat outside the circle of competence. Insurance, finance, consumer goods, and railroads were the core focus. Apple became a notable exception and eventually Berkshire’s largest equity position; Alphabet was first purchased relatively late in Buffett’s tenure. Overall, tech remained at the margin of the portfolio.
Under new CEO Greg Abel, that posture is changing — but without abandoning the value framework. Abel has said Berkshire’s culture and values still form the basis of its operating approach. Yet the first half of 2026 has revealed new signals.
In the final stretch of Buffett’s tenure, Berkshire was already trimming Apple, selling 10.3 million shares in the fourth quarter of 2025. Abel has kept Apple as Berkshire’s top holding, at 20.1% of the equity portfolio. At the same time, Berkshire added to Alphabet in the first quarter of 2026 and participated in Alphabet’s $80 billion equity offering in June, investing $10 billion through a private placement. Alphabet’s Class A shares now represent 6.8% of Berkshire’s stock portfolio, while Class C shares account for 1.8%.
Behind these moves sits a deliberate AI value logic. Alphabet is building AI data center infrastructure and expanding its custom chips and cloud business. As of May, Alphabet held a 14% share of the global cloud computing market, with custom chip clients including AI company Anthropic. What Berkshire appears to be buying is not short-term compute hype, but durable cloud and infrastructure capacity that can generate cash flow.
Apple is taking a different route. Instead of developing large language models or building massive data centers, Apple uses its consumer devices as the entry point for AI. In 2025, generative AI apps paid Apple $900 million in fees to list on the App Store. That positions Apple as a toll road between AI applications and users, collecting fees without shouldering hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure spending.
Keeping Apple as the largest position while continuing to add to Alphabet suggests Abel sees value opportunities in technology and AI. But the operation still follows Berkshire’s long-term investment discipline — not a speculative swing into unproven companies.
