Warren Buffett Just Tripled Down on the Stock Bill Ackman Is Selling

Quick Read Berkshire tripled its Alphabet stake to 58 million shares ($17B) while Ackman liquidated 95% of his position and pivoted to Microsoft. Google Cloud's backlog nearly doubled to $460B in contracted future demand as Alphabet trades at a forward P/E of 25, below the S&P average. Ackman's Microsoft bet…

Quick Read

Berkshire tripled its Alphabet stake to 58 million shares ($17B) while Ackman liquidated 95% of his position and pivoted to Microsoft.

Google Cloud's backlog nearly doubled to $460B in contracted future demand as Alphabet trades at a forward P/E of 25, below the S&P average.

Ackman's Microsoft bet targets a $37B AI run rate and $627B commercial backlog after the stock fell 19% year to date.

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Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B), now run by CEO Greg Abel with Warren Buffett serving as chairman, disclosed in Q1 2026 13F filings that it nearly tripled its Alphabet stake to roughly 57.8 million shares worth about $16.6 billion, vaulting Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) into a top-five Berkshire holding.

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In the same window, Bill Ackman's Pershing Square reportedly liquidated more than 95% of its Alphabet position and reallocated into Microsoft. Ray Dalio's Bridgewater bought heavily on the same side as Berkshire, and Trump and Pelosi disclosed early-2026 buys of Alphabet as well. The smart money split itself in half over the same stock.

Why Berkshire tripled down on Alphabet

The case Abel's team appears to be underwriting is straightforward, which is partly why it feels so Buffett-shaped. Alphabet's Q1 2026 results showed EPS of $5.11 versus a $2.63 consensus, revenue of $109.90 billion, up 21.8% year over year, and Google Cloud growth of 63% with backlog nearly doubling quarter over quarter to over $460 billion. That backlog is the number that matters. It is contracted future demand, not a projection, and it dwarfs anything Alphabet has previously reported.

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Valuation is the other half. Alphabet trades at a trailing P/E of 28x and a forward P/E of 25x, with an analyst target of $417. Sundar Pichai's framing was characteristically measured: "Our AI investments and full stack approach are lighting up every part of the business." Shares are up 115% over the past year and 15% year to date, but down 6% over the past month. Berkshire bought a compounder, on a pullback, at a multiple cheaper than the S&P average. That is the Buffett playbook even when Buffett isn't pushing the buttons.

Ackman's pivot to Microsoft

Ackman's exit deserves to be read as a reallocation, not a thesis-breaking sell signal. He moved capital into Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), where the AI numbers are arguably louder. Microsoft's most recent quarter showed an AI business annual run rate of $37 billion, up 123% year over year, Azure growth of 40%, and commercial RPO of $627 billion, up 99%. The restructured OpenAI partnership leaves Microsoft with a roughly 27% stake worth approximately $135 billion and IP rights extended through 2032.