Alphabet shares opened the week up 3.1% on Monday, apparently in reaction to Berkshire’s buyout announcement. The rally strengthened after Google unveiled its new Gemini 3 AI model on Wednesday, which has received positive reviews. While Alphabet soared, some of its biggest tech rivals fell significantly over the same period, though Nvidia’s strong earnings failed to completely quell fears of an “AI bubble.”
The pace of gains has drawn attention to who is really behind the move within Berkshire. Buffett gets most of the public credit, but his longstanding practice is to give portfolio managers room to operate.
“We know this isn’t the case, though, because portfolio managers Ted Weschler and Todd Combs are able to act as ‘free agents,'” noted a CNBC column, noting that Alphabet doesn’t seem like Buffett’s “type of stock.” CNBC’s Yun Lee wrote that the investment “likely” originated from Weschler or Combs, pointing to their role in managing many of Berkshire’s more “tech-leaning” positions, including its Amazon stake, which is now valued at about $2.2 billion.
Lee also recalled Buffett’s own distance from some tech decisions in the past. “Even before that position was first revealed in 2019, Buffett went out of his way to tell CNBC’s Becky Quick that it wasn’t his decision and that ‘there was no personality change.'”
Bloomberg Opinion columnist Nir Kausar framed the Alphabet deal as a possible philosophical break from Buffett’s traditional discipline. He recalled refusing to invest in Buffett’s business during the Internet boom of the late 1990s, warning that “AI is orders of magnitude more complicated than selling books or pet food online.” “Combine opaque technology with a premium valuation, and you’re sure to lose Buffett,” he added.
Kaiser suggested that the move could signal a shift under CEO-designate Greg Abel, writing that it “reflects a very different approach from Berkshire’s shareholders, notably, a new willingness to pay more now for potentially higher growth down the road, if Buffett rarely takes a chance.”
The result is clear in dollar terms now. In just days, Berkshire’s Alphabet position has soared in value and reopened a familiar question in Omaha and on Wall Street: Is this still Buffett’s playbook or the first real glimpse of what’s to come.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, opinions and views given by experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)
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