Warren Buffett Offloaded a Chunk of His Biggest Holding. Here's Where the Money Went.
Key Points
Berkshire Hathaway owns lots of companies outright and stock in many other companies.
Buffett has stepped down as CEO and Greg Abel is in charge now.
Abel has made some interesting recent purchases.
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Warren Buffett recently stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA) (NYSE: BRKB), whose investing empire he built over six decades. But even though he has handed the reins to Greg Abel, countless people still want to study the 95-year-old's moves, as he's arguably the modern era's greatest investor.
Before Buffett stepped down at the end of 2025, he -- or possibly his investing lieutenant, Ted Weschler -- had divested much of Berkshire's top stock holding. Let's take a look at that.
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The stock is Apple. As of 2024's end, Berkshire Hathaway owned about 300 million shares of Apple, which was worth about $75 billion and represented about 2% of Apple's value. A year later, after selling shares in three of the next four quarters, Berkshire owned about 228 million shares worth about $62 billion.
It can seem like a really big deal that so many Apple shares were sold, but note that Berkshire still owns roughly 228 million shares. Also, consider that at the end of 2024, Apple shares made up a whopping 28% of the Berkshire portfolio. That's a lot of eggs in one basket! Mere portfolio rebalancing can be the explanation for all the sales. (More recently, Apple shares made up 22% of Berkshire's portfolio.)
So what did Buffett buy? Before stepping down, he opened a position in The New York Times and added to some holdings, such as Chevron and Chubb, while shrinking Berkshire's positions in stocks such as Bank of America.
You might be more interested in what has happened in 2026, though. Abel has overseen big investments in Google parent Alphabet and recently made his first big acquisition, of homebuilder Taylor Morrison.
Abel has also been spending millions buying back some Berkshire stock. You, too, might want to consider buying some Berkshire Hathaway stock, as it's a diversified conglomeration of solid businesses, built to last. Its energy division, previously run by Abel, may be particularly promising, in part because of data centers requiring lots of power.
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Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Selena Maranjian has positions in Alphabet, Apple, and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Chevron, and The New York Times Co. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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