Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F filing for the first quarter of 2026 points to a more active approach to portfolio management and a greater concentration of selected exposures. The company significantly increased its stake in Alphabet and opened a new position in Delta Air Lines. At the same time, Berkshire completely exited several major holdings, including Amazon, UnitedHealth, Visa and Mastercard.
According to Charu Chanana, Chief Investment Strategist at Saxo Bank, the early signs of Greg Abel’s strategy do not suggest a departure from Warren Buffett’s principles, but rather an adaptation of those principles to today’s market reality. In practice, this means applying value investing to a market in which technology platforms now generate the cash flows, scale and durable competitive advantages once associated mainly with leaders of the traditional economy.
For decades, classic value investing was linked primarily with banks, consumer staples, insurance, railroads, energy and industrial companies. But the structure of the market has changed significantly. Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple and other global technology platforms are no longer viewed only as “growth stocks”. They now have recurring revenues, global scale, high margins, strong cash generation and the ability to finance major investment cycles from their own resources. This gives them some defensive characteristics, even if their valuations remain demanding.
The message of the Abel era may therefore be summed up as follows: value is no longer defined by sector. It is defined by the durability of cash flows and competitive advantage.
The largest technology companies are increasingly treated not only as sources of growth, but also as a form of balance-sheet quality in an uncertain macroeconomic environment. This matters in a world of higher bond yields, elevated geopolitical risk, inflationary pressure and uneven economic growth. In such conditions, companies with net cash positions, pricing power, recurring revenues and high returns on capital naturally become more attractive.
This does not mean that the largest technology companies are risk-free. Rather, it means that the strongest among them are now being used by investors as a combination of growth exposure and quality exposure.
The AI trend is not over, but it is maturing. The market is gradually moving away from rewarding every company linked to the AI narrative. Investors are increasingly focused on the difference between AI spending, AI-related revenues and margins generated by AI. That is why the moves of major investors matter. Some are increasing exposure to Alphabet, others to Microsoft, while others are rotating between the same mega-cap names.
The message remains clear: AI is still a powerful market driver, but the selection of winners will depend more and more on fundamentals and company-specific factors.
Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio became more concentrated in the first quarter. This fits a broader market pattern: many leading investors are focusing exposure on a smaller number of companies in which they have stronger conviction. However, this should not be seen as a signal for retail investors to blindly build highly concentrated portfolios. In a market increasingly driven by differences in earnings, balance-sheet quality and AI exposure, investors should look more carefully at the role each position plays in their portfolio.
Berkshire Hathaway’s move toward Alphabet is a reminder that value investing does not have to mean avoiding technology. In today’s market, some of the best cash-generating machines are global technology platforms. The key distinction is between buying technology simply because it is fashionable and investing in technology companies because of the durability of their business models, scale, competitive advantages and ability to generate free cash flow. Berkshire’s move appears closer to the latter category.
Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Meta and Nvidia are all part of the technology ecosystem, but their risk factors differ: advertising, cloud computing, devices, enterprise software, AI infrastructure, semiconductors, capital expenditure and regulation. The next phase of the AI trend may rely less on broad exposure to the narrative itself and more on identifying companies where AI investment translates into revenue growth, margin resilience and free cash flow generation.
Higher bond yields raise the bar for equities. This makes companies with weak balance sheets, distant profits or uncertain cash flows more vulnerable to pressure. That is why many large investors continue to favour businesses with pricing power, scale and high returns on capital. In a world where the cost of capital is no longer zero, quality is not a luxury. It is a risk-management tool.
At the same time, the old economy has not disappeared. Berkshire Hathaway still holds significant positions in financials, consumer companies with strong brands and energy. The purchase of Delta Air Lines shares and the reduction of the Chevron position also show that the portfolio is not moving one-way toward technology.
In this sense, Berkshire is building a portfolio based on cash flows from both the old and the new economy. This is an important lesson for investors: AI may remain a key investment theme, but it does not remove the need for diversification across sectors, economic cycles and risk factors.
The increase in Berkshire Hathaway’s Alphabet position should not be read simply as a call to chase the AI trend. It is rather a signal that the boundary between value investing and growth investing has become increasingly blurred. For investors, the conclusion is clear: the largest technology companies remain a crucial part of the market, AI still has structural potential, but selectivity is becoming more important. The winners of the next phase may not be the companies with the loudest AI narrative, but those that can turn AI investment into durable cash flows.
