Greg Abel Lifts Berkshire's Alphabet Stake Above $30 Billion With $10 Billion Share Purchase
Updated
Updated · The Motley Fool · Jun 22
Greg Abel Lifts Berkshire's Alphabet Stake Above $30 Billion With $10 Billion Share Purchase
3 articles · Updated · The Motley Fool · Jun 22
Summary
$10 billion in additional Alphabet shares were bought by Berkshire in a private offering, lifting its position to more than $30 billion at current prices.
The purchase extends a large bet Berkshire began building in late 2025, after Warren Buffett retired as CEO at the end of last year and handed leadership to Greg Abel.
Alphabet's appeal rests on a business that generated $160 billion in trailing-12-month net income on $423 billion of revenue, with advertising still contributing more than 70% of sales.
AI is a second pillar of the thesis: Google Cloud revenue jumped 63% year over year in the first quarter and now makes up 18% of revenue, while Gemini is being fed by billions of user interactions.
That combination of scale, AI spending and improving growth has helped push Alphabet's total revenue growth to 22% in Q1 2026, with the shares trading at about 26 times forward earnings.
Can Google's AI spending deliver returns before antitrust lawsuits potentially dismantle its core business?
Is Berkshire's $30B Alphabet stake a bet against the US government's power to break up tech monopolies?
Berkshire Hathaway’s $10 Billion Alphabet Investment: A New Era of AI-Driven Strategy
Overview
On June 1, 2026, Berkshire Hathaway made a landmark $10 billion private placement in Alphabet as part of the company’s historic $80 billion equity raise, specifically to fund a massive expansion of Alphabet’s AI infrastructure. The investment was split into two tranches: $5 billion in Class A shares at $351.81 per share and $5 billion in Class C shares at $348.20 per share. This bold move reflects Berkshire’s strong belief in Alphabet’s future growth, especially in AI, and marks a significant shift in its investment strategy towards high-growth technology sectors.