Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway on why Google is the only tech investment they regret not making: We are ashamed that we…

Warren Buffett and the late Charlie Munger finally ended their decades-long regret by acquiring a $4.3 billion stake in Alphabet, Google’s parent company, in Q3 2025. This move, driven by firsthand experience of Google’s advertising prowess through GEICO, signals Berkshire Hathaway’s growing confidence in Alphabet’s AI ambitions and its core search business.

Warren Buffett and the late Charlie Munger have long called missing Google‘s 2004 IPO one of their biggest investing mistakes—a regret they finally addressed in Q3 2025 by purchasing a $4.3 billion stake in Alphabet, Berkshire Hathaway’s first-ever position in the tech giant.In a 2017 shareholders meeting clip that resurfaced recently, Munger bluntly admitted: “We screwed up.” Buffett explained they had direct evidence of Google’s potential through GEICO, Berkshire’s insurance subsidiary, where $10-per-click ads with “marginal cost of exactly zero” delivered massive returns. “We could see in our own operations how well that Google advertising was working. And we just sat there sucking our thumbs,” Munger said, calling it shameful and suggesting their massive Apple investment was “atonement.“

Berkshire finally makes its move on Alphabet after two decades

That regret persisted until Q3 2025, when Berkshire disclosed purchasing approximately 17.8 million Alphabet shares—mostly Class A voting stock—worth $4.3 billion as of September 30. The position made Alphabet Berkshire’s 10th-largest holding, representing 1.6% of its $267 billion equity portfolio and roughly 0.3% ownership in Google’s parent company.The November 2025 disclosure came as Buffett trimmed his top holding Apple by 15% to $61 billion and continued reducing Bank of America. To the analysts, Berkshire’s move on Alphabet was both a way to quiet a long-standing regret and a bet on Alphabet’s AI ambitions via the Gemini models, not to mention the profitable growth of Google Cloud and the strength of its dominant search advertising-the same zero-marginal-cost business model that GEICO has firsthand experienced.

Google stock rallies as Buffett bet validates AI growth story

Alphabet shares gained about 6% to new highs after the disclosure and the stock gained almost 70% through 2025, boosting Berkshire’s stake to around $5.7 billion by year’s end. The move marked a quiet tilt toward technology exposure as Buffett prepared to relinquish the CEO role to Greg Abel in 2026.Berkshire’s Q4 2025 filing, due mid-February 2026, will reveal whether the Oracle of Omaha added to his long-delayed Google position before handing over the reins.