Berkshire Hathaway Shares Surge as Wall Street Reels from AI Fears

Berkshire Hathaway Shares Surge as Wall Street Reels from AI Fears

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Berkshire Hathaway shares have surged past the S&P 500 index this week, as investors pivot from slumping tech stocks to the perceived safety of a traditional conglomerate. Amid fears that massive spending on AI data centers may not pay off, Berkshire's relatively low exposure to artificial intelligence has made it an attractive haven.

Just a month ago, Berkshire's widely held B shares were underperforming the S&P 500 by 13.6 percentage points for the year. However, bolstered by three record-high closes this week, Berkshire now holds a 5.8 percentage point lead over the benchmark index.

The company's robust share repurchase program saw a significant increase, with $9.6 billion bought back last quarter, even as operating earnings saw a slight decline, according to the company's Saturday report.

This week alone, Berkshire shares climbed over 5%, while the S&P 500 declined by nearly 2.7%. The contrast is even starker when compared to the Nasdaq Composite, which fell 3.4% over the same period.

Thursday's significant tech sell-off pushed the Nasdaq down over 10% from its recent high, entering correction territory, though it recovered some ground on Friday.

Two weeks ago, Berkshire Hathaway shares fully recovered from the approximately 15% drop experienced in the three months following Warren Buffett's unexpected announcement in May 2025 that he would step down as CEO. The shares are now up 6% from the record highs hit the Friday before that revelation.

Alphabet's Slide Highlights 'Disappointing' Stock Picks

Berkshire is not entirely detached from the AI market's volatility. In early September, Berkshire Hathaway Energy's CEO, Greg Abel, noted a "significant opportunity" in providing electricity to data centers. He also expressed confidence in Berkshire's substantial investment in Google's parent company, Alphabet, anticipating that AI would significantly impact businesses and that Google was a key player.

However, this investment has faced criticism this week as Alphabet's stock has slumped alongside other AI-related companies. As of June 30, Berkshire held nearly 106 million shares of Alphabet, including a significant purchase of Class A and Class C shares in June valued at $10 billion. These shares, purchased at prices around $350, are now trading near $284.

Bloomberg suggests that Berkshire's recent push into AI-related stocks might be mistimed given the cracks appearing in the AI trade. The publication notes that Berkshire's Alphabet position, valued at $37.8 billion at the end of June, has fallen to $30.2 billion, now ranking fourth in Berkshire's portfolio behind Coca-Cola.

CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert questioned whether it's too late for Berkshire to increase its AI exposure. However, Keefe Bruyette & Woods analyst Meyer Shields suggests that Abel's investments in AI are likely long-term wagers, aligning with Berkshire's characteristic conservatism.

Conversely, Barron's Andrew Bary views the estimated $3 billion loss on Alphabet as part of a disappointing trend in Berkshire's stock-picking over the current decade. While the S&P 500 has seen substantial gains, and tech stocks have quadrupled, Berkshire's performance has lagged.

While investments in Japanese trading houses, Chevron, and Chubb have performed well, Bary points to several underperformers or closed-out positions, including Verizon, HP, Paramount, General Motors, Constellation Brands, and Pool. Even Berkshire's investment in Occidental Petroleum, while up 20%, lags behind most energy stocks this year.

Bary also highlights Apple, where Berkshire has significantly reduced its stake since 2023, selling shares at an average price well below the current market value. Despite these sales, Apple remains Berkshire's largest equity holding.

Bary concludes that equity investing might not be the central focus for Berkshire moving forward, suggesting that new holdings revealed by the company may not be advisable for investors to follow, given the recent track record.

Sirius XM Shares Lifted by Small Berkshire Addition

Berkshire Hathaway's disclosure of a modest $27 million addition to its $4.1 billion Sirius XM stake has fueled a rally, pushing the satellite radio company's shares to a 52-week high. Sirius XM reported a 14% increase in Q3 free cash flow, growth in subscribers, and raised its full-year guidance.

Following the positive earnings report, Berkshire purchased over 924,000 shares. The disclosure of these buys late Tuesday evening appeared to further boost the stock, contributing to an 8.4% gain the next day.

Overall, Sirius XM is up 18.6% since its earnings release and 62.0% year-to-date. This marks the first addition to Berkshire's stake since mid-2025, with the position likely managed by portfolio manager Ted Weschler.

Berkshire Utility Seeks 57% Rate Hike in Northern California

Pacific Power, a unit of Berkshire Hathaway's PacifiCorp, has requested a 57% rate increase from California regulators, which would add approximately $120 per month to the average residential electric bill. The utility states the hike is partly to offset wildfire mitigation efforts, with $103 million slated for enhancing power equipment resilience in wildfire-prone areas.

The utility is facing substantial liability claims from fires in 2020 and 2022. Meanwhile, Oregon's Supreme Court is reviewing a case that could expose PacifiCorp to billions in damages related to four Oregon wildfires in 2020.

Buffett & Berkshire Around the Internet

• Morningstar: Berkshire Hathaway Shares Are Up 11% This Year. Is the Stock a Buy Ahead of Earnings?
• Quartz: 10 lessons from Warren Buffett's 90/10 rule for everyday investors
• Fortune on MSN: Tech stocks just lost more than $1 trillion in a day—a gothic horror test for the moats Warren Buffett taught Wall Street to love
• Motley Fool: Prediction: Berkshire Hathaway Stock Tops $700 a Share Before the End of 2030

Highlights From CNBC's Buffett Archive

Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (2017)

In this 2017 clip, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger discuss the potential impact of artificial intelligence on employment and society.

Andrew Ross Sorkin: Thomas Kimay (PH) is here. He's a 27-year-old shareholder from Kentfield, California.

And I should preface this question by saying that he was here 17 years ago at 10 years old, asked you a question from the audience asking you if the internet might hurt some of Berkshire's investments.

At the time, you said you wanted to see how things would play out. He's now updated the question. (Buffett laughs)

"What do you think about the implications of artificial intelligence on Berkshire's businesses, beyond autonomous driving and GEICO, which you've talked about already? ...

Warren Buffett: I certainly have no special insights on artificial intelligence, but I will bet a lot of things happen in that field in the next couple of decades, and probably a shorter timeframe.

They should lead, I would certainly think — but again, I don't bring much to this party. But I would certainly think they would result in significantly less employment in certain areas.

But that's good for society. And it may not be good for a given business, but let's take it to the extreme. Let's assume one person could push a button and, essentially, through various machines and robotics, all kinds of things, turn out all of the output we have in this country. So, everybody's — there's just as much output as we have. It's all being done by, you know, instead of 150-some million people being employed, one person. You know, is the world better off or not? Well, certainly we'd work a lot less hours a week — of work per week and so on. I mean, it would be a good thing, but it would require enormous transformation in how people relate to each other, what they expect of government, you know, all kinds of things. And, of course, as a practical matter, more than one person would keep working. But pushing the idea that way is one of the — you'd certainly think that's one of the consequences of making great progress in artificial intelligence. And that's enormously prosocial, eventually. It's enormously disruptive in other ways. And it can have huge problems, in terms of a democracy and how it reacts to that...

Charlie Munger: Well, you're painting a very funny world where everybody's engaged in trade. And the trade is, I give you golf lessons and you dye my hair. And that would be a world kind of like the royal family of Kuwait or something. And I don't think it would be good for America to have everything produced by one person and the rest of us just engaged in leisure.

Berkshire Stock Watch

Four weeks

Twelve months

BRK.A stock price: $856,612.00
BRK.B stock price: $570.89
BRK.B P/E (TTM): 14.35
Berkshire market capitalization: $1,222,245,324,463
Berkshire Cash as of June 30: $365.5 billion (Down 8.0% from March 31)
Excluding Rail Cash and Subtracting T-Bills Payable: $359.2 billion (Down 3.8% from March 31)
Berkshire repurchased $4.5 billion of its shares in Q2 2026.

Berkshire's Top Equity Holdings - Nov. 6, 2026

Berkshire's top holdings of disclosed publicly traded stocks in the U.S. and Japan, by market value, based on the latest closing prices. Holdings are as of June 30, 2026, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway's 13F filing on August 14, 2026, except for Mitsubishi, which is as of April 30, 2026.

The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

Questions or Comments

Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@cnbc.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)

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Also, Buffett's annual letters to shareholders are highly recommended reading. There are collected here on Berkshire's website.

-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch