Berkshire buys – Berkshire Hathaway, led by Greg Abel since January 1, agreed to buy $10 billion of Alphabet stock in a private placement—$5 billion of Class A shares at about $352 each and $5 billion of Class C shares at about $348 each. The move follows an $8.5 billion acqui
Berkshire Hathaway moved to put its cash hoard to work this week, not with a vague promise of “investing,” but with a specific purchase: $10 billion of Alphabet stock.
On Monday, Google’s parent company said Berkshire had agreed to buy $10 billion of Alphabet stock in a private placement. The deal breaks down into $5 billion of Alphabet Class A shares for about $352 a share, and $5 billion of Class C shares for around $348 a share.
Alphabet’s two share classes closed above $370 a share on Monday. That means Berkshire is buying in at roughly a 6% discount to the market price.
The Alphabet purchase was announced one day after Berkshire disclosed it had struck an $8.5 billion deal to acquire Taylor Morrison Home Corporation. a publicly traded homebuilder and community developer. Together. the acquisitions point to a company that’s signaling it’s willing to deploy capital again—at a time when it has rarely had the option of “doing nothing” without watching its cash mount.
The Alphabet stake isn’t arriving out of nowhere. Berkshire already owns a large position in the search, advertising, and AI company. On Monday, Alphabet also said it would raise a further $70 billion from other sources.
Berkshire bought nearly 18 million shares in the third quarter of last year, then more than tripled its holding to almost 58 million shares in the first three months of this year. That gave it a roughly $17 billion stake as of March 31.
If Berkshire hasn’t trimmed the position since then—and if it follows through on the latest private-placement agreement—its Alphabet holdings would rise to more than $32 billion in Big Tech stock, potentially becoming one of the largest parts of Berkshire’s portfolio.
While the company’s purchase is measured in billions, its scale matters more than the sticker price. Berkshire’s existing holdings and a handful of large decisions won’t dramatically shift the company’s overall posture on their own. But the pattern behind the activity is hard to miss: the purse strings appear to be loosening.
For years. Buffett struggled to deploy Berkshire’s money aggressively while the market stayed hot. deals were fiercely competitive. and Berkshire’s own stock price made buybacks less attractive. Over the last three years, that left a war chest that has grown dramatically. Berkshire’s hoard of cash. Treasury bills. and other liquid assets has almost tripled—from about $130 billion at the end of 2022 to a record $380 billion at the end of March.
Berkshire is now in its post-Buffett era. Buffett ended his six-decade run as Berkshire’s CEO at the end of last year but remains chairman. Greg Abel took over as CEO on January 1.
In Abel’s first three months. Berkshire appeared to echo Buffett’s caution at the same time it moved larger pieces. After Berkshire revealed it was a net seller of stocks for a 14th consecutive quarter. it still bought around $16 billion worth of shares in the period. That spending was more than offset by disposals totaling $24 billion.
Some of those sales may have been tied to personnel changes: Berkshire has been offloading Todd Combs’ positions following the investment manager’s departure to JPMorgan.
Abel also reinstated buybacks in March after Buffett had refrained from repurchasing shares for the preceding six quarters. The mix—material stock purchases. renewed buybacks. the Taylor Morrison acquisition. and the latest Alphabet deal—doesn’t have to “move the needle” to matter. It changes the feel of the company’s capital planning.
For longstanding shareholders, that cash has been both a point of frustration and a source of reassurance. Fund manager Tom Russo has praised Buffett’s discipline, saying the dry powder will be invaluable during the next crisis.
Now, with Abel putting numbers behind the shift, Berkshire is betting that the next crisis—or the next opportunity—can be met with a full arsenal rather than a growing pile.
Berkshire Hathaway Greg Abel Alphabet Alphabet stock private placement Class A Class C cash pile Treasury bills Taylor Morrison JPMorgan Todd Combs buybacks Tom Russo
Berkshire just printing money again I guess.
So they bought Alphabet stock at like a discount? I don’t get why it’s a “private placement” though, sounds shady. Also $10 billion is just insane, my grocery bill is already more than that.
Wait, did this mean they’re buying Google shares because Taylor Morrison is related? Like homebuilder AI or something? The article says Class A and Class C but then talks about “search, advertising, and AI” and I’m just like… okay so which one is actually going up.
Every time I see Berkshire buy tech I’m like, sure, but how long until they pivot again. They say it’s around a 6% discount and I’m thinking discount for who? If Alphabet was closed above $370 then why are they quoting $352 and $348 like that’s normal. Also Taylor Morrison deal too, like they’re trying to own housing and the search engine… makes no sense but probably does to rich people.