Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel Is Venturing Into an Area of the Stock Market That Warren Buffett Largely Shied Away From. Here’s Why Investors Might Play Along.
Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA) (NYSE: BRKB) CEO Greg Abel has only been in his new gig for a little under six months. But he’s already making his mark on the conglomerate.
Abel stepped into the role after Warren Buffett served as CEO for six decades. Buffett is widely considered one of the greatest investors of all time. During his time at the helm, Berkshire’s shareholders enjoyed market-crushing returns. In fact, Berkshire’s stock likely received a premium simply because Buffett was CEO.
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Given all that, filling Buffett’s shoes is essentially an impossible task. But Abel must try, and as he begins to chart his own course for the conglomerate, he’s venturing more decisively into parts of the stock market that his predecessor typically shied away from.
Here’s why investors might play along.
Joining the artificial intelligence trade
The Oracle of Omaha famously said he preferred to invest in companies whose businesses he understood, but that doesn’t mean he avoided investing in new sectors or industries. For instance, Buffett piled into the consumer tech giant Apple starting in 2016, and at one point, that position grew to roughly 40% of Berkshire Hathaway’s massive equities portfolio.
But despite the incredible gains that artificial intelligence stocks experienced in recent years, Berkshire never got too invested in AI during Buffett’s tenure. Up until recently, Berkshire held a small position in Amazon, but it’s believed that the decision to make that purchase was made by former Berkshire investment manager Todd Combs.
The company also took a stake in Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) last year, while Buffett was on his way out.
This year, Abel has significantly increased the company’s position in Alphabet. In the first quarter of 2026, Berkshire more than tripled its stake in the company. More recently, Berkshire announced it would purchase an additional $10 billion in Alphabet stock as part of a massive $85 billion private placement the tech giant was making. Berkshire did get a discount on the purchase.
Alphabet is now a top-five position in Berkshire’s portfolio.
Now, we can’t know whether or not Buffett would have signed off on these moves if he were still CEO, but they certainly go against many of his core investment principles. For one, purchasing Alphabet this year meant buying the stock at valuations well above its average.
