Pellom

Ha! A coworker of mine -- no kidding, two weeks ago -- had the realization he should invest in tech stocks because he used AI to help him re-seed his yard for the summer. I didn't have the heart to tell him he's about 40 months behind.

Kind of feels more like the nifty fifty bubble to me than the dot com bubble, at least in the sense that the market keeps going up in stark opposition to what feels like economic, social and political unrest (and geopolitical instability). We think of the dotcom bubble first because technology has benefited this time around, but that might just be due to that fact that our biggest companies are tech companies unlike the late 60s/early 70s.

Becoming Berkshire, Kingswell and The Rational Walk are great for Berkshire coverage. Kyla Scanlon's newsletter is great for macroeconomic coverage. Some others I'd recommend: The Berkshire Backstop, Base Hit Investing, Flyover Stocks, Raging Bull Investments, smallvalue, Sector Stories. Most have free and paid options.

Do you mean downtrend in general, or downtrend while the rest of the market is booming? I started a fund/partnership this year, and totally agree with you that it has been frustrating to build a position in Fairfax (my largest holding by design) and watch it drop while the rest of the market is up. You just have to be reasonably convinced patience and diligence will win out. But I am in my early 30s, not in retirement. If I needed cash and already had a huge position, I don't think trimming is out of the question.

I read this from someone on the board, so not taking credit, but I think they were waiting for Ron Olson to leave the board of directors.

https://stratechery.com/2026/the-google-capital-company/

Agree with most here that it's a puzzling decision based on valuation alone. But there are other factors we're not privy to, of course, and over the long term I think owning a chunk Alphabet is better for shareholders than having $10B in cash today. Just speculation and rumination, but it'll be interesting to see if this is Berkshire "picking their horse" in the AI capex boom. Not to say they are making a prediction about an ultimate winner or loser, but I remember at last year's AGM, Greg was adamant they would not let data centers hook up to BHE without the implicit understanding the data center(s) wouldn't receive preferential treatment, and that rates would not be increased for smaller customers due to capacity constraints. My feeling is Greg (and probably Warren too) feel more comfortable about how Alphabet's management is approaching these issues than the other players, but again, that is just speculation.

Thanks, gfp, as always, for the work you do and share with us here. I wonder if Ted is moving to more of a "set it and forget it" strategy with the equity portfolio, or if he was told he could spend Todd's money but not manage it thereafter. Would be weird, but this is a weird purchase so I'm brainstorming.

Buying more here too.

Finally pulled the trigger on AutoNation. Small position, will probably add as it drops (figure the war/gas prices will temporarily hurt the business).

A take I'm workshopping (but not sure if I believe totally) is that the 24/7 social media news cycle makes the formulation of a "bubble" much harder. Of course, because it does seem like we know everything there is to know, I suppose there is an argument that an existential out-of-left-field shock would do far more damage. Also, if we are in a "bubble," market makers cannot allow it to pop without being able to monetize their SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAi, etc., shares. The music must play until they can unload those shares on the public.

“Berkshire’s continued net seller status somewhat obscures the fact that it laid out $15.9 billion during the quarter on new purchases. That represents a pretty significant amount of capital freshly deployed into the portfolio. A real statement of conviction after many quarters of relatively modest activity. And, in the space of three months, just slightly less than Berkshire spent on stock throughout all of last year.” The Berkshire Beat: May 15, 2026 - Kingswell Should be pretty interesting to see what Ted bought with Todd's allocation.

TVFL. New position.

I'll go $10-20B. Wouldn't totally surprise me if Berkshire (B) stock hits $450 at some point this year.

The message was very clear this weekend. "No one is going to push us around or tell us what to do." BNSF is a HUGE part of that.

I think Ted is more involved in the operating businesses than we know. At least in the sense that he is involved in acquisitions in that space and not solely a public securities manager.

Chamath is just pumping the prediction markets. He seems to be insinuating Buffett was working with insider information and now having to report holdings every three months has supposedly ruined Berkshire's performance.

Thiel is clearly facing stimulant psychosis. His obsession with the anti-christ being a primary example.

Got it. I'm hazy on how the disclosure process works. We're all in agreement that it is very un-Berkshire-like to announce buybacks ahead of time, so when I saw the volume spike this morning (looking at 02/02) I thought maybe Greg was disclosing something they had already done (and may continue to do in the future.) Anyway, if you figure the internal calculation of intrinsic value is in the range of Bloomstran's $570 per B-share, we're still trading at a 10% discount, which is easily justifiable from a buyback perspective.

There was a big volume uptick in A shares on 02/02. Could they have purchased them then?

Everyone has cash? Bank of America's global fund manager survey released Tuesday points to all-time low cash levels of just 3.3%, down from 3.7% in November. Such bullish positioning, notes the report's author Michael Hartnett, represents the biggest headwind for risk assets. Investors are all-in already. FMS cash level drops to record low 3.3% Fund managers hold record low in cash as sentiment hits four-year high | Morningstar

Becky gave him a great line to use going forward: "Wow, you're essentially paying yourself less than Buffett's $100K salary." It's not really true, but makes for good politics.

I would also guess the "discount to intrinsic value" hurdle is likely to be less burdensome going forward. The price has basically been in the same spot for a year, but Warren didn't buy any shares. I'm sure Greg is aware Berkshire gets away with having a ton of cash because we all expect Warren to take a big swing at some point, but he's not going to have that same luxury.

He explained it by saying they have a two day blackout following the 10k release. He also said he plans to do this yearly on the same day (presumably 2 days after the 10k). It won't always align with share repurchases, I'm sure.

Looks like it's not with his bonus, but instead his entire aftertax salary.