Warren Buffett’s retirement as CEO of the conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA +0.95%) (BRKB +1.00%) drew a lot of questions, particularly around its vaunted investment portfolio. Would the company’s buy-and-hold investment philosophy change under the stewardship of Buffett’s successor, Greg Abel? And how would the makeup of the company’s $330 billion portfolio change?

Now we’ve got some answers. Berkshire Hathaway made its 13-F quarterly filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the period ending March 31, making it Berkshire’s first 13-F under Abel’s leadership. Berkshire opened new positions in retailer Macy’s and airline Delta Air Lines. And it closed long-term positions in such stalwarts such as Mastercard, Visa, Charter Communications, and Pool.

But I was most struck by two significant trades of Magnificent Seven stocks — Berkshire Hathaway completely closed its position in Amazon (AMZN +0.21%), and purchased more than 3.5 million shares of Alphabet (GOOG 0.19%) (GOOGL 0.13%) stock — instantly making the Google parent one of Berkshire Hathaway’s biggest holdings.

The moves are particularly striking, as Buffett had been a fan of Amazon stock for a long time and publicly lamented that he hadn’t invested earlier. Meanwhile, Berkshire didn’t open a position in Alphabet until the third quarter of 2025, making it one of the company’s newest stocks.

Abel obviously likes Alphabet stock a lot more than Amazon these days. And I think he’s absolutely right. Here’s why.

Alphabet

Today’s Change

(-0.13%) $-0.50

Current Price

$396.28

Amazon and Alphabet have some things in common

Both these companies are members of the Magnificent Seven grouping of stocks — seven of the biggest and most influential companies in the stock market. The Magnificent Seven group — Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Meta Platforms, plus Amazon and Alphabet — represent more than a third of the S&P 500, and gained 875% from 2016 through 2025.

Both companies are major players in cloud computing and the build-out of artificial intelligence. Amazon Web Services is the largest name in the cloud infrastructure market with 28% of global market share. Microsoft Azure is in second place with 21%, and Alphabet’s Google Cloud is in third place with 14%.And both are growing quickly — AWS brought in $37.5 billion in sales in the first quarter, up 28.5% from a year ago. Meanwhile, Google Cloud generated $20.1 billion in Q1 revenue, up 63% in a year.

Amazon

Today’s Change

(0.21%) $0.56

Current Price

$264.70

However, some key differences make Alphabet better

The critical difference between the two companies is their businesses outside the cloud. Amazon is a juggernaut in e-commerce, with revenue of $104.1 billion in North America and $39.78 billion internationally. However, those two mammoth segments combined generated only $9.69 billion in operating income, less than Amazon’s AWS ($14.16 billion).

Meanwhile, Alphabet reported $89.63 billion in revenue from Google Services, including internet search, Google Network ads, YouTube, and Google subscriptions. That segment generated $40.58 billion in operating income, compared with $6.59 billion from Google Cloud.

The bottom line? Alphabet’s internet advertising dominance is much more profitable than Amazon’s e-commerce. And that makes Alphabet a more appealing company.

The new Berkshire Hathaway portfolio

The changes made in Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio under Abel in the first quarter vaulted Alphabet to a top-5 holding.

Source: CNBC

While Alphabet stock makes up 7% of Berkshire Hathaway’s total investment portfolio, it’s important to note that the company holds a relatively small stake, accounting for less than 1% of total Alphabet shares. In comparison, Berkshire Hathaway owns 22.2% of American Express, 27.5% of the consumer goods company Kraft Heinz, and 37.5% of the entertainment company Sirius XM.

Abel will surely make additional changes to the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio in the months to come, so investors may have more surprises ahead. But the new CEO’s preference for Alphabet over Amazon stock right now couldn’t be clearer.