Will Google be Berkshire CEO Greg Abel's best stock pick after predecessor Warren Buffett's Apple bet?

Legendary investor Warren Buffett's Apple bet turned out to be one of his most lucrative investments of all time. His successor Greg Abel might have found an investment he will be known for - a company that Buffett once regretted not investing in earlier.

After taking over the reign as Berkshire Hathaway CEO in January this year, Greg Abel began putting the company’s record cash pile of nearly $400 billion to work. At the centre of this shift in strategy is Google-parent Alphabet.

Berkshire agreed to buy Alphabet shares worth $10 billion in a private placement last month, the Google-parent said. Berkshire began investing in Alphabet in last year's third quarter, and owned $16.6 billion of shares as of March 31 this year. Last month’s investment made Alphabet one of Berkshire’s five largest common stock holdings, which are led by iPhone-maker Apple.


Notably, Berkshire’s growing investment in Google is particularly important as Warren Buffett back in 2017 had reflected on missed opportunities with Google. He often explained why he avoided buying tech stocks as he did not really understand how they were making money or whether they would be able to do so in the past - a decision that he later said cost a lot of money for Berkshire investors. However, his successor seems to be taking the opportunity to ride on the AI bandwagon.

Warren Buffett’s Apple bet vs Greg Abel’s Google bet

Warren Buffett once joked that Apple’s outgoing CEO Tim Cook made more money for Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholders than he ever did as CEO of the iPhone-maker. While Buffett sold a major chunk of Berkshire’s Apple holding, it still continues to constitute the company’s largest holding.

Berkshire invested about $35 billion in Apple during the period between 2016 and 2018. That $35 billion investment then rapidly surged to around $185 billion before tax, including dividends and gains, Buffett was quoted by Business Insider as saying. "And I didn't have to do a damn thing," he added.

Also read: Warren Buffett's successor puts record $400 billion cash pile to work. What's he buying?

Greg Abel’s biggest bet so far has been his position in Alphabet. It is only time that will tell whether the investment can deliver stellar returns like how Apple did under Buffett’s tenure. Alphabet shares have gained around 13% in 2026 so far. Apple shares meanwhile have gained around 17% in this year so far.

This comes while analysts sound the alarm over the rising AI spending of the hyperscalers. Jefferies' Global Head of Equity Strategy Chris Wood recently cautioned that the stock market may soon begin to push back against the significant spending by Wall Street's hyperscalers, which he predicts will be "massive capital destruction". In his latest 'Greed & Fear' report, Wood highlighted that the four major US hyperscalers, including Microsoft, Facebook-parent Meta, Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet, have issued bonds worth $144 billion so far this year, compared with $83 billion in the entire 2025. The shares of these four hyperscalers, meanwhile, have rallied up to 180% since the beginning of 2023, outperforming the S&P 500 index by 44%.

He highlighted that the cycle of AI frenzy is most likely to end not because the hyperscalers suddenly rein in their spending but because markets start to push back against that spending. “And that spending is not just cash but also, increasingly, borrowed money,” he added. Any such pause in AI infra spending may impact memory chip makers like Samsung.

Morgan Stanley also noted that clear ⁠evidence that ‌AI products can generate returns that justify the spending is yet to be seen, despite Alphabet and Amazon having committed billions to scale up their AI infrastructure, skyrocketing the share prices of semiconductor companies.

Also read: What Warren Buffett learnt from buying his first stock at age of 11 amid World War II

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)