Berkshire Hathaway’s new CEO Greg Abel is wasting no time putting his own stamp on the conglomerate’s investment portfolio since taking the reins from Warren Buffett at the start of 2026.
The company’s latest Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed significant portfolio shifts at the end of the second quarter, drawing intense scrutiny from investors worldwide.
Abel sold over 50% of Berkshire’s remaining stake in Nucor (NYSE: NUE), America’s largest steelmaker, continuing a rapid exit from a position that Berkshire only initiated at the beginning of 2025.
Berkshire originally purchased around 5.75 million shares of Nucor and has since sold more than two-thirds of that initial investment across the past two quarters combined.
The sell-down comes despite Nucor’s remarkable performance, with the stock posting a nearly 62% gain so far in 2026 and roughly 82% over the past 12 months.
Nucor has been swept into the AI trade due to increasing demand for steel from companies building data centers, with the company’s earnings before income taxes surging about 48% from the prior quarter in Q2.
Abel’s team appears to be taking profits on a position that never seemed destined to become a long-term core holding within Berkshire’s broader portfolio strategy.
On the buying side, Berkshire dramatically expanded its position in Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL), participating in a $10 billion private placement announced in early June while also purchasing an additional $7 billion of shares in the open market.
Alphabet has now climbed to become the third-largest position in Berkshire’s entire equity portfolio, sitting behind only Apple and American Express.
Buffett noted in a CNBC interview earlier this year that he had initiated the original Alphabet position in 2025, though the stake has grown into a top-three holding under Abel’s leadership.
The timing of the Alphabet purchase is notable given that the stock hit an all-time high in May and is up nearly 150% over the past five years.
Abel’s aggressive accumulation of Alphabet puts Berkshire at odds with billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, whose fund Pershing Square Capital Management exited its Alphabet position over the past two quarters.
After selling most of Pershing Square’s Alphabet stake in the first quarter, Ackman posted on X on May 16: “To be clear, our sale of $GOOG was not a bet against the company. We are very bullish long term on Alphabet. But at current valuations and in light of our finite capital base, we used $GOOG as a source of funds for $MSFT.”
Alphabet is planning to spend potentially north of $200 billion on AI capital expenditures this year alone, making any investment in the stock a significant bet on the future of artificial intelligence.
Beyond AI infrastructure, Alphabet maintains a broad portfolio of strong technology businesses including YouTube, Waymo, cloud computing, search, advertising, and a custom chip division.
Berkshire’s move into Alphabet aligns with Buffett’s long-held philosophy of buying wonderful companies at fair prices and holding them over the long term rather than chasing short-term gains.
