Berkshire Boosts Alphabet Stake 83% to $37.8 Billion for AI Infrastructure
Updated
Updated · Yahoo Finance · Aug 20
Berkshire Boosts Alphabet Stake 83% to $37.8 Billion for AI Infrastructure
3 articles · Updated · Yahoo Finance · Aug 20
Summary
Berkshire Hathaway lifted its Alphabet holding by 83% in the second quarter to nearly 106 million shares, making Google’s parent its third-largest stock position behind Apple and American Express.
A $10 billion private placement completed on June 4 formed part of the buildup, with Alphabet saying the proceeds would help fund capital spending for AI infrastructure and global compute.
Alphabet’s latest results help explain the bet: second-quarter revenue rose 24% to $119.8 billion, Google Cloud jumped 82% to $24.8 billion, and cloud operating income more than tripled to $8.8 billion.
The investment still carries a heavy spending risk because Alphabet raised its 2026 capital-expenditure forecast to $195 billion-$205 billion and posted a record $5.9 billion quarterly cash burn even as cloud growth accelerated.
At roughly 17 times forward earnings, Alphabet remains a favored AI name for investors, with 513 hedge funds holding the stock in Q2 and Berkshire the largest tracked holder.