Berkshire Hathaway added 17.8 million Alphabet shares worth $4.9 billion, but the trade was not made by Warren Buffett

Berkshire Hathaway stunned markets late Friday when its end‑of‑Q3 equity filing showed a massive new position in Alphabet, and the shock came because the buy, more than 17.8 million Class A shares worth $4.9 billion, was not made by Warren Buffett, according to the filing’s details and the timing of the trade.

Alphabet surged by 3.5% in after‑hours trading when the numbers hit, as investors tried to figure out who inside Omaha made the call and why the tech bet showed up now, especially since the filing dropped right after the closing bell, according to the document released by Berkshire.

The firm has never added Alphabet in this size before, and Alphabet has already gained 51.3% this year, including 37% in the quarter when the buy was made. That alone raised questions about whether Warren, who has always avoided tech outside Apple, was involved at all.

He has said many times that he sees Apple as a consumer product name, not a tech company, and Alphabet has never been his style. The numbers also confirm the move was the largest dollar increase in Berkshire’s Q3 portfolio.

Tracing who made the Alphabet buy

The Alphabet purchase breaks from the way Warren usually invests, which is why executives around him are being considered. The 2019 Berkshire meeting gave clues to why Warren likely wasn’t the one.

At that meeting, Warren Buffett said he and Charlie Munger “screwed up” by not buying Alphabet years earlier, adding they “sat there sucking our thumbs” even though Berkshire could see how well Google ads worked inside its companies.

On that day, Alphabet traded around $59, and neither Warren nor Charlie said anything that suggested they planned to act on that mistake.

Greg Abel, who will become CEO next year, is not tied to that old hesitation. Warren has already shifted many of his duties to Greg, and Greg is not carrying any baggage from past missed opportunities.

The buy also could have come from Berkshire’s investment managers Ted Weschler or Todd Combs, who have handled several tech‑leaning positions over the years.

The filing also confirms Alphabet was the biggest Q3 addition, even when measured by its September 30 price of $4.3 billion, far above the $1.2 billion increase in Chubb shares.

Tracking the cuts to Apple, Bank of America, and others

The same filing shows Berkshire cut its Apple holdings by 15%, removing $10.6 billion worth of shares and leaving it with 238 million. Apple has now been reduced by 74% since Berkshire began trimming two years ago.

Even so, Apple remains the company’s largest equity holding, now valued at $64.9 billion, or 21% of the portfolio.

Bank of America was reduced by 6.1%, or about $1.9 billion, leaving 568 million shares worth $29.9 billion. That position has been cut by 43% since early last year. Berkshire also continued reducing Verisign, which was first disclosed in early August.

Beyond the portfolio moves, Warren released his Thanksgiving letter on Monday, which lit up coverage because he wrote, “I’m ‘going quiet.’” But he followed that with its own paragraph saying, “Sort of.”

He said Greg Abel, whom Warren described as “a great manager, a tireless worker and an honest communicator,” will take over writing to shareholders next year and handle questions at the annual meeting, while Warren will sit with the directors on the arena floor. He added that he will still “continue talking to you and my children about Berkshire via my annual Thanksgiving message.”

His letter ran more than seven pages this year, more than double last year’s. He wrote about age, luck, Omaha friends, and his belief in Greg’s ability to run the company.

He also shared a story from his childhood hospital stay, saying he took fingerprints from the nuns caring for him because “someday a nun would go bad, and the FBI would find that they had neglected to fingerprint nuns.”

The letter also confirmed he will increase gifts to the foundations run by his three children, who are now 72, 70, and 67, and he wants them to manage his estate before other trustees step in.

Each foundation received 400,000 Class B shares, up from 300,000 last year, and a fourth foundation named after his late wife received the same total as last year. Combined, the gifts rose 17% to $1.3 billion. Class B shares are up 4% since last year’s donations.

The portfolio section ends with Berkshire’s top holdings across the U.S., Japan, and Hong Kong as of September 30, 2025, including Itochu as of March 17, 2025, and Mitsubishi as of August 28, 2025, with Tokyo prices converted into U.S. dollars from yen.