Bloomberg/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Abel’s aggressive positioning has a backstory that stretches to Google’s 2004 initial public offering, which was priced at $85 per share. Alphabet stock has gained more than 13,300% since its debut, and for most of that run, Berkshire owned none of it.<\/p>\n Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway’s vice chairman, called missing Google one of Berkshire’s most shameful investing misses.<\/p>\n But I feel like a horse’s ass for not identifying Google [now part of Alphabet] better. I think Warren feels the same way. … We could see in our own operations how well that Google advertising was working. And we just sat there sucking our thumbs\u2026,<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Buffett publicly acknowledged the missed opportunity at the 2017 annual shareholder meeting. <\/p>\n He explained that Berkshire’s subsidiary GEICO had been paying Google $10 to $11 per click for advertising, which gave him firsthand visibility into the business model’s strength.<\/p>\n The timing of Abel’s bet aligns with financial results that would appeal to any value-oriented investor. <\/p>\n Alphabet reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $109.9 billion, a 22% year-over-year increase, with earnings per share surging 82% to $5.11, the company’s earnings release showed.<\/p>\n Google Cloud, the division most directly tied to Alphabet’s artificial intelligence push, delivered $20 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time, a 63% year-over-year jump. Cloud backlog nearly doubled to more than $460 billion, signaling sustained enterprise demand for AI infrastructure.<\/p>\n More Warren Buffett:<\/strong><\/p>\n “2026 is off to a terrific start. Our AI investments and full-stack approach are lighting up every part of the business,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in the earnings release, as search revenue grew 19%, with queries hitting an all-time high.<\/p>\n Google’s search engine commands approximately 90% of global internet search traffic, a dominance that gives Alphabet extraordinary advertising pricing power.\u00a0<\/p>\n Combined with YouTube, that moat fits the profile of durable competitive advantages that both Buffett and Abel have historically favored.<\/p>\n Abel appears willing to concentrate Berkshire’s portfolio in fewer higher conviction positions, and he is not avoiding technology the way his predecessor did for decades.<\/p>\n CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert has suggested that Abel’s background as an operator may lead him to consolidate Berkshire’s units to achieve greater scale and efficiency. <\/p>\n Steven Check, president of Check Capital Management, has echoed that view, expecting more consolidation under Abel than under Buffett.<\/p>\n Buffett himself has publicly endorsed the new pace. <\/p>\n He told CNBC in early June that Abel had executed the $6.8 billion Taylor Morrison acquisition faster and more smoothly than Buffett himself could have, and without any input from Buffett, a public endorsement of Abel’s early tempo as CEO.<\/p>\n Alphabet shares traded at approximately $357 as of July 1, and the stock has risen nearly 89% over the past 12 months, according to Robinhood.\u00a0 With Berkshire still holding nearly $400 billion in cash, Abel’s spending spree may only be getting started.<\/p>\n Related: Warren Buffett\u2019s successor Greg Abel makes another $10 billion bet<\/strong><\/p>\n #Buffett039s #successor #Greg #Abel #doubles #stock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Greg Abel took over as Berkshire Hathaway’s chief executive on January 1, and he wasted very little time in rewriting the conglomerate’s investment playbook.\u00a0 In the first quarter alone, he… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[246],"tags":[5074,1663,2390,2945,91,5673],"class_list":["post-10147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-popular","tag-abel","tag-buffett039s","tag-doubles","tag-greg","tag-stock","tag-successor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.thestreet.com\/.image\/NDA6MDAwMDAwMDAzMDk5Njc1\/berkshire-hathaway-logo-on-a-shirt-in-a-mall.jpg?profile=rss\"){kind=logo}
Buffett and Munger’s two-decade Google regret fuels Abel’s conviction<\/h2>\n
\n
Alphabet’s AI-powered earnings growth supports the Berkshire thesis<\/h2>\n
\n
What Abel’s Alphabet investment signals for Berkshire’s future direction<\/h2>\n