Key insights
- Berkshire Hathaway significantly increased its GOOGL stake while reducing its CVX position, signaling a potential shift from energy to technology under new leadership. The re-entry into Delta Airlines is also notable. The large GOOGL investment suggests confidence in mega-cap tech, potentially influencing market sentiment towards the sector.
Three moves stood out in Berkshire's Q1 13F, but the story is the rotation between two of them:
GOOGL: position more than tripled, from 17.8M shares to 54.2M. Roughly $5.6B → $15.6B. About $10B of fresh capital deployed in a single quarter.
CVX: cut from 130.2M shares to 84.4M, down 35%. Still a large $17.5B position but the trim is meaningful this is the same quarter they tripled GOOGL.
DAL: Delta added back as a new position, 39.8M shares (~$2.65B). Notable because Berkshire fully exited airlines in 2020 after the COVID-era impairment.
Reading these together: capital rotating from legacy energy into mega-cap tech. This is also the first full year of the post Buffett CEO era under Greg Abel, with Weschler and Combs handling more of the equity allocation. A $10B GOOGL build in one quarter is a bigger statement coming from them than it would have been as a Buffett move.
The DAL re-entry is the headline a lot of outlets will run with, but it's a smaller position. The real signal is the energy-to-tech rotation.
Question for the sub: does this rotation signal a meaningful shift in Berkshire's allocation philosophy under Abel/Weschler/Combs, or is it just normal portfolio drift now that Buffett isn't actively steering?
(Caught this on kresmion com it groups 13Fs by filer-quarter instead of line-by-line. Free.)