Who Made Berkshire's Alphabet Bet - Buffett or Greg Abel?

Greg Abel has been chief executive since January, so the year's biggest new stock position was widely read as his first big call. Buffett says it was his, and that Abel approved it. If you hold Berkshire, or you are working out who allocates its capital now, that distinction matters - and it is not something the filings themselves will ever settle.

Verified key facts

• Buffett said in a CNBC interview that he initiated Berkshire's Alphabet investment, with Greg Abel approving the decision.
• Berkshire added roughly 48 million Alphabet shares in the second quarter, taking the position to about 106 million shares worth $37.8 billion, according to CNBC's reading of the 13F.
• Berkshire made $19.77 billion of net equity purchases in the second quarter, about $17 billion of it in Alphabet, per TheStreet.
• Berkshire has been a net seller of stocks in 14 of the last 15 quarters, some $175 billion more sold than bought since October 2022, according to The Motley Fool.
• Cash and Treasury bills stood at more than $360 billion on 30 June 2026, per the same reporting.
• The Buffett indicator reached an all-time high of 240.32 per cent on 12 August, against a historical average of 88 per cent since 1970.

Who Actually Made the Call

Greg Abel became chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway at the start of 2026, and the company's largest new equity position since has been widely read as his. CNBC reported on Saturday that this reading is wrong: Buffett said in an interview with the network that he had initiated the Alphabet investment himself, and that Abel approved it.

The two men, by Buffett's account, speak frequently and are aligned on the decision. But the sequence matters for anyone trying to work out how Berkshire now allocates capital, because it places the origination of the biggest call of the year with the chairman rather than the chief executive.

The distinction has practical consequences for shareholders trying to value the company. Berkshire has long traded partly on the quality of its capital allocation, and knowing whose judgement is being applied is not a matter of curiosity but of underwriting.

The Size of the Position

Alphabet first appeared in a Berkshire 13F filing in the third quarter of 2025. The second-quarter 2026 filing showed the company adding roughly 48 million shares, taking the combined holding to about 106 million shares worth $37.8 billion, according to CNBC.

TheStreet reported that Berkshire made $19.77 billion of net equity purchases in the quarter, of which around $17 billion went into Alphabet alone. That concentration is unusual even by Berkshire's standards and leaves little doubt about where the conviction sat.

It is also a departure from the technology scepticism Buffett expressed for most of his career. He avoided the sector for decades on the grounds that he could not assess its durability, made an exception for Apple that became his largest position, and has now made a second at scale.

A Chairman Who Is Still the Boss

Buffett did not leave the company when he left the chief executive's office. He moved to chairman of the board, which means that in the formal structure he remains Abel's superior. CNBC's framing is that this arrangement lets Buffett stay involved in major investment decisions when he feels strongly, without taking day-to-day responsibility.

That is a narrower role than he held before, and a genuine one. The Alphabet stake suggests the threshold for his involvement is high but not theoretical.

Abel's Job Is the Other Half of Berkshire

CNBC noted that Abel has no formal portfolio-management experience and does not appear to be making notable stock-picking decisions. That is less a criticism than a description of his brief: running Berkshire's operating companies, from the railway to the utilities to the insurers, and hunting for whole-business acquisitions.

Those operating businesses are where most of Berkshire's earnings are generated, and the acquisition pipeline is where the cash pile is meant eventually to go. Splitting stock selection from operations is a workable division of labour, provided both halves are actually staffed.

Berkshire's operating businesses employ hundreds of thousands of people across railways, energy, insurance and manufacturing, and the chief executive's attention is finite. Delegating a portfolio of listed equities to people whose only job is the portfolio is defensible management rather than a gap in the succession.

Ted Weschler and the Rest of the Portfolio

The Alphabet purchase was not the only significant move of the quarter. CNBC reported that the second-largest buy, a position in Delta Air Lines, was the work of portfolio manager Ted Weschler rather than Buffett or Abel.

Weschler and Todd Combs have run meaningful slices of the equity book for over a decade, which is the succession plan for stock selection that Berkshire has been building in plain sight. The Delta purchase is a reminder that the portfolio has more than one author.

Berkshire does not identify which manager is responsible for which position in its filings, so attributions of this kind emerge through interviews and inference rather than from the documents themselves. That opacity is deliberate and long-standing, and it is part of why the CNBC interview carried as much weight as it did.

The $175 Billion of Net Selling Behind It

The buying spree sits against a long stretch of the opposite behaviour. The Motley Fool's analysis of Berkshire's filings found the company has sold roughly $175 billion more stock than it has bought since October 2022, and was a net seller in 14 of the last 15 quarters. Cash and Treasury bills stood at more than $360 billion on 30 June.

The context for that caution is valuation. The Buffett indicator, which measures total US market value against gross domestic product, hit an all-time high of 240.32 per cent on 12 August, against an average of about 88 per cent since 1970. One large purchase does not reverse four years of restraint.

Analysts at Forbes read the second-quarter buying as Berkshire turning buyer for the first time in years. That is true of the quarter in isolation, but the four-year balance still shows a company that has sold far more than it has bought, and $360 billion of cash is not the balance sheet of a firm that has decided equities are cheap.

The November 13F That Will Show Whether the Buying Continues

Berkshire's third-quarter 13F is due in the middle of November, and it is the first filing that will show behaviour after the Alphabet position was fully built. If the net-buying of the second quarter continues, the four-year pattern of net selling has genuinely broken.

If it does not, the Alphabet stake will stand as what CNBC's reporting implies it was: a single high-conviction decision by a chairman who still makes them, rather than a change in how Berkshire sees the market.

Buffett turns 96 at the end of August, and the arrangement under which he originates the largest decisions while Abel executes everything else is by definition transitional. The filings over the next year will show how quickly the balance moves.

Sources

• CNBC - Warren Buffett, not Greg Abel, appears to still be calling the shots on stocks
• TheStreet - Warren Buffett and Greg Abel have a $175B warning for Wall Street
• The Motley Fool - Warren Buffett's and Greg Abel's $175 Billion Warning Echoes Loudly Through Wall Street
• Forbes - Berkshire Hathaway Turns Buyer As Buffett Backs Alphabet
• Benzinga - Berkshire Hathaway 13F Preview: What Moves Did Buffett's Successor Make?