Meet the "Magnificent Seven" Stock Berkshire Hathaway and Investing Legend Warren Buffett Should Have Bought. (Hint: It's Not Apple, Amazon, or Alphabet.)

Warren Buffett, who ended his legendary run as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of last year, looked to buy and hold businesses that have economic moats. This term helps to explain durable competitive advantages that a company has that allow it to succeed over time. His philosophy worked extremely well.

The tech sector is full of businesses that fit the criteria. After avoiding making bets in this sector, Buffett finally expanded his focus and bought Apple in early 2016. Berkshire also added Amazon in 2019 and Alphabet in 2025 to its portfolio. All these decisions likely had input from his investment lieutenants, Ted Weschler and Todd Combs.

These dominant companies certainly have moats. However, there's another "Magnificent Seven" stock that should have been purchased as well.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

A decade of betting on tech titans

In the past decade, Apple shares have climbed 966% (as of Jan. 30). Since the end of the first quarter of 2019, Amazon shares are up 169%. And Alphabet stock has increased by 39% since the end of Q3 2025. These investments have been successful, although it's too early to make any judgments about the Google parent decision.

Either way, the "Magnificent Seven" stock that never made the cut is Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META). It undoubtedly would've been a winning portfolio addition. Shares have risen 177% in the past five years.

Buffett is strict on considering only companies that he fully understands. Getting to know its products and services, financial situation, industry layout and competition, and management team is critical. After that, the Oracle of Omaha must be able to forecast earnings power in the future. Maybe he just didn't feel comfortable when looking at Meta.

Meta's moat is strikingly obvious, though. It possesses arguably one of the widest economic moats on the face of the planet. Its social media apps benefit from incredible network effects, a source of competitive advantage that has become more common in the internet economy.

Those social media apps become better as they get larger. The experience for users improves as other users join. Combined, they had a mind-boggling 3.58 billion daily active users in Q4 2025 (ended Dec. 31). A hypothetical competing social platform that has only hundreds of users would be useless.

Meta is also able to collect vast amounts of valuable data that allows it to refine its algorithms. This leads to better engagement from users and supports improved targeting capabilities for advertisers.

Will the Berkshire of tomorrow look different?

This is the start of a new era for the conglomerate. Buffett is no longer the CEO. Greg Abel holds the top job. Maybe the Berkshire of tomorrow will start to dabble more in industries that it would've quickly turned down in years and decades past.

Neil Patel has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.