Abel Jettisons Amazon, Buys into Alphabet with a Bang

Greg Abel, Warren Buffett's successor at Berkshire Hathaway, has been busy shaking up the company's $358 billion investment portfolio since Buffett's December 31 retirement.

In the first quarter of this year, Abel reduced six holdings and sold out of 16 others, including Amazon. The reasoning behind these sales is unclear, but one possibility is that they were non-core holdings previously managed by Todd Combs, who left Berkshire in December to join JPMorgan Chase.

However, it's also possible that the sales were simply a result of profit-taking. Since Berkshire first invested in Amazon in 2019, its shares have more than doubled in value.

On the other hand, Abel has developed a keen interest in Alphabet, the parent company of Google, which he sees as having a sustainable moat and significant artificial intelligence ambitions. In fact, Berkshire's stake in Alphabet has grown from $5.59 billion to $36.37 billion between December 31 and September 25 this year.