Berkshire Hathaway's surprising new tech stake

As Warren Buffett gets person to stepping down arsenic CEO astatine the extremity of adjacent month, helium told shareholders helium volition beryllium "going quiet," but lone "sort of."

More connected his Thanksgiving letter, which looks similar it could go a important yearly tradition, below.

First:

There was a notable astonishment successful Berkshire Hathaway's end-of-Q3 equity portfolio snapshot, released aft Friday's closing bell.

Someone successful Omaha purchased much than 17.8 cardinal Class A shares of Google's parent, Alphabet.

They are presently valued astatine $4.9 billion, making them the biggest Q3 summation successful dollar terms.

The quality sent the banal 3.5% higher successful after-hours trading.

At this point, we don't cognize who made the call.

Buffett has typically made purchases of this size, but it doesn't consciousness similar his benignant of stock.

It is up 51.3% year-to-date, including a 37% ascent successful the 3rd quarter.

Also, helium has traditionally shied distant from tech stocks. (He considers Apple a user products company.)

At the 2019 Berkshire meeting, Buffett and Charlie Munger lamented that they had "screwed up" by not buying Alphabet earlier due to the fact that they "could spot successful our ain operations however good that Google advertizing was working. And we conscionable sat determination sucking our thumbs."

On that day, the shares were going for astir $59, and they gave nary denotation determination were prepared to rectify their error.

Incoming CEO Greg Abel isn't encumbered by that history, and Buffett has been handing implicit galore of his duties to him.

Or it could beryllium 1 oregon some of the portfolio managers, Ted Weschler and Todd Combs.

Stay tuned.

Alphabet was by acold the biggest Q3 summation astatine $4.3 billion, based connected the September 30 price, good up of a $1.2 cardinal summation for Chubb.

The biggest decreases, Apple and Bank of America, had been foreshadowed by hints in Berkshire's 10-Q astir 2 weeks ago.

(The Verisign simplification was disclosed successful aboriginal August.)

Berkshire's Apple presumption was chopped by astir 15%, oregon $10.6 billion, to astir 238 cardinal shares.

It's down 74% since Berkshire began selling 2 years ago.

But Apple remains Berkshire's largest equity presumption astatine $64.9 billion, which is 21% of the portfolio's existent value.

The Bank of America simplification was smaller, conscionable 6.1%, oregon astir $1.9 billion.

The remaining 238 cardinal shares are presently valued astatine $29.9 billion, Berkshire's 3rd largest position, making up astir 10% of the portfolio's existent value.

It's been chopped by 43% since aboriginal past year.

Many of the headlines on quality stories astir Warren Buffett's Thanksgiving letter on Monday included this quotation: "I'm 'going quiet.'"

But determination was different operation that followed that enactment adjacent the apical of the letter, getting its ain paragraph: "Sort of."

Starting adjacent year, Greg Abel, "a large manager, a tireless idiosyncratic and an honest communicator," volition beryllium penning the yearly gathering to shareholders and answering questions astatine the yearly meeting. Buffett plans to beryllium connected the arena level with the different directors.

But helium wrote, "I volition proceed talking to you and my children astir Berkshire via my yearly Thanksgiving message."

This year's missive ran a spot much than 7 pages, compared to astir 3 pages past year, and sounded a batch similar the yearly letters he's been penning for decades, with sections connected the value of luck, getting old, his admiration for Berkshire shareholders, the galore friends helium has made implicit the years successful Omaha, and his implicit assurance successful Abel's quality to tally the company.

He besides revealed that portion hospitalized arsenic a child, helium received a fingerprint kit and proceeded to instrumentality prints from the nuns caring for him, due to the fact that "someday a nun would spell bad, and the FBI would find that they had neglected to fingerprint nuns."

(CNBC.com has this summary)

The newsiest spot was his program to "step up the gait of beingness gifts" to the three foundations tally by his children, who, similar Buffett, are getting older. (They are 72,70, and 67.)

He wants to "improve the probability that they volition dispose of what volition fundamentally beryllium my full property earlier alternate trustees regenerate them."

But helium besides "wants to support a important magnitude of 'A' shares until Berkshire shareholders make the comfortableness with Greg that Charlie and I agelong enjoyed."

The result, astatine slightest for this year, is an summation successful the Class B shares (converted from Class A) going to each instauration to 400,000 shares from 300,000 shares past year.

Including a 4th unchanged donation to a instauration named aft his precocious wife, the full arsenic of the day of the gifts accrued 17% to $1.3 billion.

Playing a much insignificant role: Class B shares are up 4% since past year's gifts.

Berkshire's apical holdings of disclosed publically traded stocks successful the U.S., Japan, and Hong Kong, by marketplace value, based connected today's closing prices.

Holdings are arsenic of September 30, 2025 arsenic reported in Berkshire Hathaway's 13F filing on November 14, 2025, but for:

• Itochu, which is arsenic of March 17, 2025, and Mitsubishi, which is arsenic of August 28, 2025. Tokyo Stock Exchange prices are converted to U.S. dollars from Japanese yen.

The afloat database of holdings and existent marketplace values is disposable from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

Please nonstop immoderate questions oregon comments astir the newsletter to maine at alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, but we don't guardant questions oregon comments to Buffett himself.)

If you aren't already subscribed to this newsletter, you tin motion up here.

Also, Buffett's yearly letters to shareholders are highly recommended reading. There are collected here connected Berkshire's website.

-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch