Abel's $10 Billion Alphabet Wager Meets a Softer Profit Line
Published on 11/07/2026 at 17:32 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Berkshire Hathaway's new chief executive is putting money to work in artificial intelligence at a scale that would have been hard to imagine under his predecessor. Greg Abel has committed $10 billion to Alphabet, according to a Bloomberg report published yesterday, and added a further $930 million to Bending Spoons. Bloomberg framed both moves as a tilt toward AI-linked holdings. Investors took the news in stride: the stock gained 0.5% to close at €512.70.
The buying did not stop there. A regulatory filing dated Tuesday disclosed that Berkshire picked up 924,281 Sirius XM shares for roughly $26.9 million, spread across trades executed on 30 October and on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Those purchases lifted Berkshire's economically attributable stake to 125,731,398 shares.
Cash Pile Grows as Earnings Slip
The investment activity lands alongside a quarterly report that shows Berkshire's firepower intact but its core profitability under pressure. As of 30 September, the insurance arm and the group's other businesses held $352.3 billion in cash, cash equivalents and US Treasury bills — a figure that already accounts for liabilities tied to September purchases settled in October.
That liquidity is not being matched by earnings growth. Operating profit for the third quarter of 2026 came in at $12.705 billion, down from $13.485 billion a year earlier. Net profit attributable to shareholders followed the same path, falling to $22.112 billion from $30.796 billion.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Berkshire Hathaway?
Berkshire also kept buying back its own stock, repurchasing about $9.6 billion worth in the third quarter. Buybacks across the first nine months of 2026 totaled $14.4 billion.
The Case for Confidence
The bull argument rests on what Berkshire does with its capital. Abel's technology bets, the steady Sirius XM accumulation and the ongoing repurchase program all point to a management team willing to deploy the balance sheet rather than let it sit idle. If operating results steady, those moves could compound into stronger per-share returns, with the remaining cash cushion preserving room for further action.
What would make that case convincing is alignment — capital allocation and operating momentum moving in the same direction. Then the buybacks would rest on firmer ground.
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The Case for Caution
The counterweight is the profit trend itself. A continued slide in operating earnings would force Berkshire to justify its capital decisions against a weakening backdrop. The liquidity would still provide flexibility, but a more favorable read on earning power would need to wait for an actual improvement in the business.
The next real test arrives with fresh disclosures on operating profit and on how the company deploys its cash. A stabilization paired with transparent capital decisions would bolster confidence; another round of declines would raise the bar considerably higher.
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