Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway used the second quarter of 2026 to make its largest single-name equity move in years — quietly bulking up its Alphabet position by roughly 83%. The Form 13F-HR filed with the SEC on August 14, 2026 shows Berkshire held about 106.0 million Alphabet shares across Class A and Class C as of June 30, 2026, up from 57.8 million at March 31, 2026. At quarter-end prices the combined stake was worth about $37.8 billion, vaulting Alphabet ahead of Coca-Cola to become Berkshire’s third-largest disclosed equity position, behind only Apple and American Express.
It is a striking move from an investor whose office has famously avoided the mega-cap tech complex. Combined with the earlier Q2 report that Berkshire was a net buyer of $23.5 billion of equities — its first net-buyer quarter in three years — the 13F confirms where a large chunk of that money went: into the search-and-AI giant Buffett himself has previously said he wishes he had bought a decade earlier.
What the 13F shows
Berkshire’s Q2 2026 information table lists 29 aggregated positions with a total reported market value of about $299.3 billion. The Alphabet build-out dwarfs every other move in the filing on a dollar basis. On a share-count basis, the change is even starker: Class A rose 45% and Class C rose more than sevenfold as Berkshire aggressively added to the smaller sub-class.
| Position | Q1 2026 shares | Q2 2026 shares | Change | Q2 value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alphabet — Class A | 54,249,798 | 78,791,167 | +45.2% | $28.16B |
| Alphabet — Class C | 3,585,215 | 27,188,433 | +658.3% | $9.61B |
| Alphabet (combined) | 57,835,013 | 105,979,600 | +83.2% | $37.76B |
| Bank of America | 513,624,165 | 483,394,015 | -5.9% | $27.54B |
| Delta Air Lines | 39,809,456 | 57,320,000 | +44.0% | $5.37B |
| Macy’s | 3,038,355 | 7,347,426 | +141.8% | $0.17B |
| Lennar Corp — Class A | 10,099,642 | 13,111,741 | +29.8% | $1.19B |
| Kroger | 50,000,000 | 39,000,000 | -22.0% | $2.17B |
| Capital One | 7,150,000 | 3,000,000 | -58.0% | $0.60B |
| Nucor | 3,907,075 | 1,857,752 | -52.5% | $0.41B |
| Constellation Brands | 632,890 | 0 | Exited | $0.00 |
| D.R. Horton | 0 | 3,564 | New (starter) | $0.58M |
Alphabet now the No. 3 holding
The bulk-up pushes Alphabet’s combined weight to about 12.6% of Berkshire’s disclosed equity book — enough to leap over Coca-Cola, a fixture of the top three since the 1990s. Only Apple ($66.0B) and American Express ($51.3B) are larger.
To put the concentration in perspective: Berkshire’s top three equity holdings — Apple, Amex, and Alphabet — now account for roughly 52% of the disclosed equity book. That is a portfolio that has become more concentrated in a small number of very large names, not less, despite the record cash pile Berkshire continues to sit on. (For the cash side, see our earlier note on the $365B Treasury-bill fortress.)
Why Alphabet, and why now
Buffett has spent decades declining to buy Google. In an oft-quoted 2017 remark he called his failure to invest in Alphabet a mistake, citing the extraordinary economics of the ads business the company was doing for Berkshire’s own Geico unit. The Apple stake, first disclosed in 2016, was framed at the time as a consumer-products investment rather than a technology bet.
Several things about this Alphabet build-out are worth flagging:
- Size implies senior sign-off. A position now approaching $38 billion is too large to be run out of just Todd Combs’ or Ted Weschler’s sub-portfolios (each historically in the $15–20B range). The final size and the pace of the accumulation strongly suggest Buffett — and, by extension, incoming CEO Greg Abel — signed off.
- The Class C skew is deliberate. Class C shares (GOOG) carry no voting rights and typically trade at a small discount to Class A (GOOGL). Berkshire’s decision to load the Class C stake more than sevenfold — while adding a comparatively modest 45% to Class A — suggests the buying team was price-sensitive and happy to accept the non-voting shares to minimize signaling and cost.
- It is a valuation call, not a private-market roll-up. Alphabet closed Q2 2026 at roughly $357 per Class A share and $353 per Class C share (implied from the 13F value and share fields), putting the multiple at the low end of the mega-cap AI cohort. For a firm known to buy at “moat plus discount,” that framing fits.
The rest of Q2’s moves
The Alphabet headline overshadows a set of smaller adjustments that, taken together, look like a modest re-mix of the book rather than a wholesale shift:
- Bank of America: -5.9%. Berkshire continued to trim its BofA position, shedding roughly 30 million shares. The stake is still enormous — $27.5B at quarter-end — and remains a top-five holding, but the direction of travel has been consistently down for more than a year.
- Delta Air Lines: +44%. A meaningful add for a name Berkshire re-entered post-pandemic. Delta was the largest airline position by dollar value at quarter-end.
- Macy’s: +141.8%. A more-than-doubling of a small-but-existing retail bet.
- Lennar (Class A): +29.8%. Homebuilder exposure continued to grow, joined by a tiny starter position in D.R. Horton (3,564 shares — the size and pricing marks it as an obvious “watchlist” toe in the water, not a full buy).
- Trims: Kroger (-22%), Nucor (-53%), Capital One (-58%), Ally (-6.9%), DaVita (-4.1%).
- Full exit: Constellation Brands (only $95M at Q1, so a rounding error rather than a thematic call).
The bigger picture: still hoarding cash, but starting to spend
The Q2 13F confirms what the Q2 quarterly report signaled: Berkshire’s twelve-quarter run as a net equity seller ended in Q2 2026, and the money went to work in a few very large names rather than being spread thinly. Alphabet took the lion’s share.
Even so, the group’s cash and Treasury-bill hoard remains near record levels — a reminder that this is not a “risk-on” pivot from Omaha, but a highly selective deployment of a small fraction of Berkshire’s dry powder. Buffett has said many times that the deployment bar is his opportunity set, not calendar pressure. The Q2 filing suggests Alphabet, at roughly Q2 prices, cleared that bar.
Sources
- Berkshire Hathaway Form 13F-HR (Q2 2026), filing index — SEC EDGAR
- Berkshire Q2 2026 13F information table (XML) — SEC EDGAR
- Berkshire Hathaway Form 13F-HR (Q1 2026), filing index — SEC EDGAR
- Berkshire Q1 2026 13F information table (XML) — SEC EDGAR
- All Berkshire Hathaway 13F-HR filings — SEC EDGAR
- SEC — Frequently Asked Questions About Form 13F
Disclosure: This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice.