Berkshire Hathaway

Warren Buffett acquires a 4.9 billion stake in Google

Further reduced its holdings in Bank of America and Apple

15 November 2025

Il presidente di Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffett al meeting annuale degli azionisti a Omaha, Nebraska REUTERS/Scott Morgan/File Photo

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company headed by billionaire Warren Buffett, bought 17.9 million shares of Alphabet, Google's parent company. The purchases represent 0.31% of Mountain View's outstanding stock and are worth $4.9 billion. In the third quarter, Berkshire further reduced its holdings in Bank of America and Apple.

Alphabet's shares rose 1.6 per cent to $280.86 in after-hours trading in New York.

Buffett, 95, who plans to step down as CEO at the end of the year and wrote his last letter to investors this year, has found a way to deploy some of Berkshire's cash, which reached a record $382 billion at the end of the quarter. As of the end of September, Google's parent company is the conglomerate's tenth largest shareholder.

Berkshire's investment in Alphabet is surprising, given Buffett's traditional investment choices and his aversion to technology companies. In this regard, Buffett has always considered Apple, which produces the iPhone, more of a consumer products company than a hi-tech giant. But now the growing market importance of artificial intelligence may have changed the Omaha oracle's mind and he has chosen Google's solidity to invest in.

At Berkshire's 2019 annual shareholders' meeting, Buffett and the late vice chairman Charlie Munger complained that they had not invested in Google sooner. Buffett claimed that Google's advertising model bore similarities to what worked for Berkshire's Geico auto insurance division.

Berkshire reduced its stake in Apple by 15% to $60.7 billion at the end of the quarter. The Cupertino, California-based iPhone maker still accounts for nearly a quarter of Berkshire's equity portfolio.

The conglomerate sold 37.2 million shares in Bank of America, giving it a 7.7 per cent stake in the Wall Street company. Berkshire also sold its position in US construction company D.R. Horton Inc.

The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate recently reached an agreement to purchase the petrochemical business of Occidental Petroleum Corp. for $9.7 billion and acquired a $1.6 billion stake in UnitedHealth Group Inc.