Berkshire Hathaway’s surprising new tech stake

As Warren Buffett approaches stepping down as CEO at the end of next month, he told shareholders he will “keep it quiet” but only “sort of.”

Here’s more information about the Thanksgiving letter, which looks set to become an important tradition each year.

First:

Berkshire Hathaway’s surprise attracted attention Q3 end stock portfolio snapshott was released after Friday’s closing bell.

Someone in Omaha bought more than 17.8 million Class A shares of Google’s parent company. Alphabet.

They’re now worth $4.9 billion, making them the biggest gain in the third quarter in dollar terms.

The news caused the stock to rise 3.5% in after-hours trading.

We don’t know who made the call at this time.

Buffett has often made purchases of this size, but this doesn’t seem to be his style of stock.

It’s up 51.3% year-to-date, including a 37% increase in the third quarter.

He also traditionally stays away from tech stocks. (He sees Apple as a consumer products company.)

in that 2019 Berkshire meeting, Buffett and Charlie Munger complained that they “screwed up” by not buying Alphabet sooner because “they could see how well Google ads were working in our own operations and we were just sitting there sucking our fingers.”

Shares were around $59 that day and gave no indication that they were ready to correct their mistake.

New CEO Greg Abel is unburdened by this past, and Buffett hands over most of his duties to him.

Or it could be one or both of the portfolio managers: Ted Weschler and Todd Combs.

Stay tuned.

Alphabet had the biggest gain in the third quarter, at $4.3 billion from its Sept. 30 price; this was well ahead of the $1.2 billion increase. chubby.

The biggest declines Apple And Bank of Americawas foretold tips In Berkshire’s 10-Q almost two weeks ago.

( Verisign the decrease was Announced at the beginning of August.)

Berkshire’s Apple position fell by almost 15%, or $10.6 billion, to about 238 million shares.

It’s down 74 percent since Berkshire started selling two years ago.

But Apple remains Berkshire’s largest equity position, at $64.9 billion, equivalent to 21% of the portfolio’s current value.

Bank of America’s discount was smaller; only 6.1% or around $1.9 billion.

The remaining 238 million shares are now worth $29.9 billion, Berkshire’s third-largest holding, and account for almost 10% of the portfolio’s current value.

There has been a 43% decrease since the beginning of last year.

The full list of Berkshire’s Q3 13F is below.

A lot related to the headlines About news about Warren Buffett thanksgiving letter Monday included the quote: “‘I’ll be quiet.'”

But there was another phrase near the top of the letter that followed this line and received its own paragraph: “Sort of.”

Beginning next year, Greg Abel, “a great manager, a tireless employee and an honest communicator,” will write the annual meeting to shareholders and answer questions at the annual meeting. Buffett plans to sit in the arena with other directors.

But he wrote: “I will continue to talk about Berkshire with you and my children through my annual Thanksgiving message.”

This year’s letter ran just over seven pages, compared to about three pages last year, and was very similar to the annual letters he’d written for decades, with sections on the importance of luck, aging, his admiration for Berkshire shareholders, the many friends he’d made over the years in Omaha, and his complete confidence in Abel’s ability to run the company.

She also explained that when she was hospitalized as a child, she was given a fingerprint kit and began taking fingerprints from the nuns who cared for her because “one day a nun would turn bad and realize that the FBI had neglected to fingerprint the nuns.”

(CNBC.com has this summary)

Its newest part was a plan to “accelerate lifetime gift giving” to three foundations run by Buffett’s aging children. (They are 72,70 and 67.)

He wants to “increase the possibility of disposing of my entire estate before alternative trustees replace them.”

But he also “wants to hold on to a significant amount of ‘A’ stock until Berkshire shareholders can develop the comfort that Greg and Charlie and I have long enjoyed.”

The result, at least for this year, is an increase in the number of Class B shares (converted from Class A) available to each foundation, from 300,000 shares last year to 400,000 shares.

When the fourth, unchanged donation to a foundation named after his late wife was included, the total of gifts increased by 17% to $1.3 billion.

Playing a smaller role: Class B shares are up 4% since last year’s gifts.

Assets are as of September 30, 2025, as reported. Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F filing On November 14, 2025, except:

A complete list of holdings and current market values ​​is available on CNBC.com’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

Please send me any questions or comments about the newsletter at: alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (We’re sorry, but we do not forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)

Additionally, reading Buffett’s annual letters to shareholders is highly recommended. There are people gathered on Berkshire’s website here.

— Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch