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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has built a $4.3bn stake in Alphabet, in what could be one of the conglomerate’s final new stock positions under the legendary investor as he nears retirement at the end of this year.
The new stake in Google’s parent company is Berkshire’s tenth-largest stock holding and somewhat of a deviation from Buffett’s philosophy of opting for long-term, buy-and-hold value stocks over high-growth companies.
Meanwhile, Buffett sold about $11bn worth of Apple shares in the third quarter, as he continued to trim his investment in one of his most profitable trades for the second consecutive quarter.
Berkshire disclosed it sold about 42mn Apple shares between June and September, leaving it with a position that was worth roughly $61bn at the end of the third quarter. However, the iPhone maker remains Berkshire’s biggest stock position.
Buffett sold more than two-thirds of his stake in Apple during a period from 2023 to 2024, which allowed the so-called Oracle of Omaha to lock in huge profits from the investment he first made in 2016.
In a letter to investors on Monday, Buffett said he was “going quiet”, retiring from his role as chief executive and stepping back from day-to-day responsibilities at the end of this year at the investing conglomerate he built.
Other than Apple and now Alphabet, Berkshire’s top stock holdings do not include investments in Big Tech companies. Its other largest positions, which remained largely unchanged for the third quarter, include American Express, Bank of America and Coca-Cola.
Despite Berkshire’s new position in Alphabet, the conglomerate continued to be a net seller of stocks during the period for the third consecutive year, offloading more than $6bn of equity investments in the third quarter. Over the past three years, Berkshire has sold about $184bn of stock.
Buffett’s vote of confidence in Alphabet underscores the turnaround in Google’s fortunes in its battle for dominance of the artificial intelligence market over the past year, while Apple is increasingly seen as falling behind Silicon Valley rivals in the AI race.
Google was caught flat-footed by the debut of ChatGPT in November 2022, and its first efforts to launch a rival chatbot misfired, driving fears that its core search advertising business would suffer as users switched to AI assistants to find online answers.
But this year has seen rapid improvements in Google’s AI capabilities. At the same time, its core search business has proved more resilient than some on Wall Street expected, with Alphabet’s total revenues hitting a record $100bn in the most recent quarter.
At Friday’s close, Apple’s stock had risen by about 12 per cent this year, while Alphabet is up 45 per cent, outrunning even AI chipmaker Nvidia to be the best-performing Big Tech stock so far in 2025.
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By Claudia Assis
Berkshire discloses stake on Alphabet now worth about $5 billion
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway finally went for Alphabet’s stock.
As it nears the end of the Warren Buffett era, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. broke new ground in the quarter that ended Sept. 30: It placed a fresh bet on tech giant Alphabet Inc., according to a securities filing released late Friday.
Buffett, who will be at the helm of Berkshire (BRK.B) (BRK.A) as CEO through the end of this year, had eschewed Alphabet shares (GOOGL) (GOOG) for years while placing plenty of other bets on tech giants such as Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)
But no longer: Berkshire ended the third quarter with a new stake of nearly 18 million Alphabet shares, at the time worth about $4.3 billion. That same number of shares is worth close to $5 billion as of Friday.
The Google parent company’s stock is up nearly 50% for the year, but endured double-digit losses in February and March. Then, in September, an antitrust case around the company’s Chrome browser business came to a much better-than-expected resolution, and the stock gained 14% and 16% in September and October, respectively.
Securities regulators require all institutional investment managers holding more than $100 million in certain securities to disclose their positions in filings called 13-Fs – offering a window into a firm’s stock and ETF holdings at the end of the quarter, and into its possible strategies.
Other Berkshire moves were more in keeping with the ethos of the organization and offered fewer surprises. It increased its holdings of Domino’s Pizza Inc. (DPZ) by 13%, and its holdings of insurer Chubb Ltd. (CB) by nearly 16%. It also sold off its stake in home builder D.R. Horton Inc. (DHI)
Berkshire reported third-quarter earnings a week ago, showing a growing pile of cash and a continued aversion to stock buybacks.
-Claudia Assis
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To watch “Trifole” is to fall in love with Langhe, a gorgeous section of the Piedmont region of northern Italy. Famed for its farming, cheeses and wine, this hilly, rural countryside feels cut off from modernity: an agrarian past perfectly…
Since 2020, commercial real estate (CRE) insurance premiums in the U.S. have risen by 88%. At the same time, risk tolerance for insurers has decreased – driven by concerns about climate risks, inflation and market volatility. Against this backdrop, building features and maintenance practices once rewarded with premium discounts are now less likely to guarantee savings.
However, the enhanced operational resilience, risk mitigation and data collection capabilities delivered by technologies like OpenBlue may help organizations secure better access to coverage and slow the rate of premium increases. The award-winning software platform can enhance resilience and transparency, reduce risk exposure, make real estate portfolios more appealing to insurers, and unlock new business growth opportunities. Here’s how:
CRE insurance premiums reflect a mix of location, building type and market dynamics that include volatility, regulatory pressures and climate risks. The increasing complexity of the underwriting process is leading insurers to require detailed information about building performance, maintenance and risk exposure before issuing coverage.
OpenBlue technology streamlines this information-gathering process and gives insurers easier access to timely and relevant information that includes:
In addition to making the underwriting process easier, this transparency and smoother data collaboration builds trust between property owners and insurers.
OpenBlue solutions streamline the collection, sharing and analysis of data. They also empower you to improve the building performance and operational efficiency reflected in that data. Our systems combine Internet-of-Things sensors, advanced analytics and AI-powered insights to give facilities and real estate teams real-time visibility into building operations, energy use, occupancy patterns and vulnerabilities.
Key capabilities that support risk mitigation include:
OpenBlue Workplace uses AI, sensors and advanced analytics to identify recurring issues and equipment trends. Instead of following an arbitrary and inefficient preventive maintenance schedule, facility managers (FMs) can use this information to strategically plan preventive measures and upgrades. This can prolong the life of expensive assets and building systems and lower overall ownership costs.
When something goes wrong, time is of the essence. The integration of Johnson Controls Metasys into OpenBlue Workplace shortens response times by automatically triggering a work order ticket when the system detects a problem.
OpenBlue Insights provides real-time occupancy and utilization information. This can help organizations plan more effectively for safety, compliance and emergency response. These insights also inform risk-related decisions such as evacuation planning, renovations and refits, or HVAC optimization during severe weather.
OpenBlue Workplace gives FMs early warnings of issues that could put people and property at risk by using data gathered from sensors that track variables like temperature, humidity, particulates and water leaks. Environmental sensors, for example, can notify facilities teams of anomalies in indoor air quality that might impact the health of occupants or damage equipment and potentially increase costs and liability.
OpenBlue Companion’s access control and visitor management features can help bolster the safety and security of occupants and assets. They can also provide digital records that improve safety compliance and protect against liability. They can even improve efficiency by automating routine tasks and helping ensure continuity of operations in emergencies.
Together, these capabilities enhance resilience by turning building data into actionable insights. Investors gain confidence in asset performance, operators can demonstrate strong risk management practices, and insurers get accurate, detailed information to support underwriting. Best of all, a recent Johnson Controls study conducted by Forrester Consulting found that the payback period for OpenBlue can be as little as eight months, with an ROI of 155% over three years.