Warren Buffett served as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA)(NYSE: BRKB) from 1965 to 2025, growing it into a $1 trillion conglomerate with numerous wholly owned subsidiaries and a portfolio of stocks and securities that is today worth about $347 billion.
Buffett continues to serve as Berkshire’s chairman, but his chosen successor, Greg Abel, took over as CEO at the beginning of 2026
Berkshire Hathaway stock delivered compound annual growth of 19.7% during Buffett’s 60-year tenure, which would have been enough to turn a $500 investment made in 1965 into a staggering $24 million as of the end of 2025. Therefore, Abel has very big shoes to fill, and it appears he’s already swinging for the fences. Berkshire purchased shares of Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) last year, but it has quadrupled its position since Abel took the helm.
The stake is now worth over $30 billion and accounts for almost 9% of the conglomerate’s equity portfolio. Alphabet is scheduled to report its operating results for the second quarter on July 22, and that earnings release will be a key test of Berkshire’s biggest bet under Abel so far. Berkshire will be looking for more AI-driven momentum at Google Search AI was initially expected to be a massive disruption to Alphabet because chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT can be a more convenient way for people to find information online compared to traditional search engines like Google Search.