The New Guy Is Not Playing It Safe

Greg Abel took over as Berkshire Hathaway CEO on January 1, 2026. He didn't waste any time.

In Q1 alone, Berkshire bought $15.94 billion in stocks and sold $24.09 billion worth, according to Reuters. Net result: a leaner, more concentrated portfolio with some clear signals about where Abel sees value.

The biggest headline is the return to airlines.

Back on the Plane

Berkshire built a $2.65 billion stake in Delta Air Lines — 39.8 million shares, representing a 6.1% ownership stake in the Atlanta-based carrier, according to The Globe and Mail.

This is a full reversal from 2020, when Warren Buffett sold Berkshire's entire airline portfolio — stakes in Delta, American, Southwest, and United worth more than $4 billion combined — and declared the airline industry permanently changed by COVID-19. According to CNBC, Buffett said at the time that "the world had changed" for aviation.

Six years later, his successor is betting it changed back. Delta is widely regarded as the best-run major U.S. carrier. Its shares jumped 3.3% in after-hours trading on the news, according to The Globe and Mail.

But there's a real risk here: Delta and the other carriers are fighting rising fuel costs amid ongoing Middle East tensions. The post-pandemic travel boom is maturing. Abel is buying into a cyclical, fuel-sensitive business at a moment of fresh headwinds. Not stupid — but not a safe bet either.

Google Gets a Monster Vote of Confidence

Berkshire more than tripled its Alphabet stake in one quarter — from roughly 17.8 million shares worth $5.6 billion to nearly 58 million shares worth approximately $17 billion by March 31, according to the Associated Press via ClickOnDetroit.

That makes Alphabet Berkshire's seventh-largest holding, per CNBC.

For context: Buffett spent decades refusing to touch tech stocks because he said he couldn't predict long-term winners. He made one famous exception — Apple — after deciding iPhone loyalty made it more of a consumer brand than a tech company. Abel is clearly not bound by that same mental model. Betting $17 billion on Google represents a real departure from the Buffett playbook.

The Todd Combs Cleanup

A chunk of the portfolio reshuffling has a specific explanation: Todd Combs left Berkshire in December 2025 to join JPMorgan Chase under Jamie Dimon, according to Business Insider.

Combs had been one of two investment managers Buffett recruited to help run the portfolio. The stocks Berkshire dumped in Q1 line up almost exactly with positions Combs was known to have built.

Gone: Visa, Mastercard, Amazon, UnitedHealth Group, Domino's Pizza, Charter Communications, Aon, and Pool Corporation, according to CNBC and Business Insider. Visa and Mastercard were literally the first stocks Combs bought after joining Berkshire, mirroring holdings from his old hedge fund, Castle Point Capital.

The other investment manager, Ted Weschler, is still in place and handles about 6% of the portfolio, per CNBC. Abel now oversees the remaining 94%.

This is a housecleaning, not a panic. But it does concentrate power — and risk — more directly in Abel's hands.

What Else Moved

Berkshire also sold roughly $8 billion of Chevron shares as energy prices were elevated, according to Bloomberg. The energy trade that made Berkshire billions is clearly being wound down.

On the buy side, Berkshire added a $55 million starter position in Macy's — small enough to be almost symbolic — and more than doubled its New York Times stake to approximately 15 million shares worth $1.3 billion, reaching a 9.4% ownership stake in the Times, per The Globe and Mail and Business Insider.

A 9.4% stake in the New York Times is a meaningful ownership position in a legacy media company with a significant digital subscription business.

The Cash Mountain

Berkshire's cash hoard is approaching $400 billion, according to CNBC.

Buffett himself has publicly acknowledged being unhappy with the investing environment. Even with these moves, Abel is deploying a fraction of available capital. The company bought back shares in Q1 — the first buybacks in a while — but the pile keeps growing.

Sitting on $400 billion in cash sends a message: either Abel doesn't see enough value in the market at current prices, or he's preserving capital for a larger deployment. Either way, it suggests caution about near-term opportunities.

The Real Story

Most coverage frames this as "Abel making his mark" — which is true, but incomplete. A generational transition is happening at the world's most influential investment company in real time, with $288 billion in equities and nearly $400 billion in cash on the line.

Abel is more comfortable with tech than Buffett ever was. He's willing to revisit sectors Buffett swore off. And he's cleaning house on his predecessor's team's picks without apology.

Investors watching Berkshire's 13-F filings as a signal should note that the approach to capital deployment has shifted significantly.