Berkshire Hathaway Owns AI Exposure in 3 Different Ways. Here's Why That's Not the Same as Owning Nvidia.

Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA) (NYSE: BRKB) invests in dozens of companies across its $361 billion portfolio. However, the conglomerate isn't heavily invested in the AI boom -- and it doesn't hold a single share of Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), the world's top AI chipmaker.

The three biggest AI-driven stocks that Berkshire still owns are Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), and Moody's (NYSE: MCO). Let's see how these stocks are exposed to the AI market -- and why they're not comparable to Nvidia.

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How much do these three stocks matter to Berkshire?

Apple is Berkshire's top holding, accounting for 20.2% of its portfolio. Apple generates most of its revenue from the iPhone and other hardware. Still, it's using its Apple Intelligence AI suite to increase the stickiness of its ecosystem and subscription-based services. It's also developed custom chips to run edge AI models locally rather than on a cloud-based platform.

Alphabet, which accounts for 7.4% of Berkshire's portfolio and ranks as its fifth-largest holding, is a more focused AI play. Its Google Cloud Platform and custom chips provide the infrastructure for AI applications, while its Gemini large language model (LLM) and AI upgrades for its search, advertising, and Workspace services are widening its moat and locking in more customers.

Moody's, which accounts for 3.4% of Berkshire's portfolio as its ninth-largest holding, is one of the largest providers of financial data in America. It's using AI to upgrade its economic forecasts and credit rating services, making it a more valuable platform for its enterprise customers.

But why aren't these three stocks comparable to Nvidia?

Apple, Alphabet, and Moody's are all sound long-term investments that have generated total returns of 113%, 138%, and 35%, respectively, over the past five years. During that same period, Nvidia's stock delivered a total return of 912% as the AI market expanded.

Past performance never guarantees future gains, but Nvidia still has plenty of irons in the fire. It's the world's largest producer of discrete GPUs for data centers, which are used to train the world's most advanced LLMs. Most of the world's top AI companies -- including Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic -- use its data center GPUs. Nvidia also locks in those customers with its proprietary software and services.

In its latest quarter, Nvidia generated 93% of its revenue from its data center chips. It faces some competition from AMD's cheaper data center GPUs, Broadcom's custom AI accelerators, and newer inference-oriented chips, but Nvidia will likely dominate the general-purpose AI training market for the foreseeable future.

From fiscal 2026 (which ended this January) to fiscal 2029, analysts expect Nvidia's revenue and EPS to both grow at CAGRs of 59%. Those are incredible growth rates for a stock that trades at 23 times this year's earnings. Apple, Alphabet, and Moody's -- which are all growing at much slower rates -- trade at 36, 16, and 30 times this year's earnings, respectively.

Why did Berkshire miss out on Nvidia?

Under Warren Buffett, Berkshire avoided Nvidia for the same reason it shunned most tech stocks: it wasn't a business he fully understood. Buffett eventually invested in Apple as a consumer goods play -- while his portfolio managers likely initiated Berkshire's position in Alphabet -- but he likely avoided Nvidia because it was tough to gauge its long-term growth.

Buffett's successor, Greg Abel, also favors Apple and Alphabet over Nvidia as a long-term AI play because they're less exposed to the semiconductor sector's boom-and-bust cycles. As the previous CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Abel also likely sees more growth opportunities in energy infrastructure stocks in the AI market than in individual chipmakers.

So while Berkshire seems to be leaving some money on the table by shunning Nvidia, it's still exposed to the AI market's growth through some of its top stocks. Over the long term, we'll see whether that conservative strategy pays off -- or misses a major technological shift.

Leo Sun has positions in Apple. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, Broadcom, Microsoft, Moody's, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.