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The Oracle of Omaha may have handed over the controls, but Berkshire Hathaway is still flying at altitude — just with a different pilot and a dramatically reshuffled flight plan. In a regulatory filing disclosed Friday, the Omaha-based conglomerate revealed a $2.65 billion investment in Delta Air Lines, a tripling of its stake in Google parent Alphabet, and the quiet exit from a string of household-name holdings including Amazon, Visa, Mastercard, and UnitedHealth Group — portfolio moves that collectively mark the most consequential first act of the Greg Abel era at one of the world's most closely watched investment institutions.

The changes, which reflect Berkshire's US-listed stock holdings as of March 31, encompass most of its staggering $288 billion equity portfolio.
During the first quarter, Berkshire purchased $15.94 billion in stocks and sold $24.09 billion — a net selling posture that signals Abel is not merely inheriting Buffett's portfolio, but actively reshaping it.

The Delta Round-Trip: From Exit to Re-Entry

Few moves in Friday's filing carry more symbolic weight than Berkshire's return to Delta Air Lines. The conglomerate now holds a 6.1% stake in the Atlanta-based carrier, comprising 39.8 million shares — a position worth $2.65 billion that represents one of the most striking reversals in recent Berkshire history.

The backstory is impossible to ignore. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, Warren Buffett — then still chief executive — sold Berkshire's entire stakes in Delta, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines, declaring memorably that "the world had changed" for aviation.
The sales were widely seen as a rare Buffett capitulation, an acknowledgment that the pandemic had fundamentally and unpredictably altered the economics of air travel.

Five years later, under new leadership, Berkshire is back — and not in a minor way. Delta is now broadly regarded as among the best-managed large US carriers, having navigated the post-pandemic rebound with more operational discipline than most of its peers.
Its shares rose 3.3% in after-hours trading Friday, a market reaction that analysts interpreted as investors pricing in what amounts to a Berkshire stamp of approval. The airline did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The return carries an asterisk, however. Airlines are currently battling rising fuel costs driven in part by Middle East conflicts — a headwind that could complicate even the best-run carrier's financial trajectory in the quarters ahead.

Alphabet Becomes a Cornerstone Holding

If the Delta investment is the filing's most emotionally resonant move, the Alphabet position is its most financially significant. Berkshire more than tripled its stake in Google's parent company during the first quarter, bringing its holding to $16.6 billion — catapulting Alphabet into the ranks of Berkshire's largest common stock investments and signaling a decisive embrace of the AI-era technology landscape that Buffett himself had historically approached with characteristic caution.

The Alphabet expansion, alongside a more than doubling of Berkshire's stake in the New York Times — now representing 9.4% of the media company's stock — suggests Abel's investment philosophy is willing to venture more boldly into media and technology than his predecessor's framework typically allowed.

What Berkshire Sold — and Why It Matters

The list of positions Berkshire exited or trimmed in the first quarter reads like a roll call of blue-chip American commerce: Visa, Mastercard, UnitedHealth Group, Amazon, Domino's Pizza, insurance brokerage Aon, and swimming pool supplies distributor Pool Corp. Berkshire also trimmed 35% of its Chevron position, though the oil company remained its fifth-largest stock holding — its share price having surged 36% during the quarter as energy prices climbed.

Most of the selling, based on prior disclosures, was directed by Abel, who inherited the bulk of Berkshire's equity portfolio following the December departure of Todd Combs — a Buffett protege who left to lead a new investment initiative at JPMorgan Chase.
Abel said in February that he personally oversees 94% of Berkshire's stock holdings, with investment manager Ted Weschler managing the remaining 6%.

Friday's filing does not specify which investments fall under each manager's purview.

Macy's Gets the Berkshire Bump

In a smaller but market-moving disclosure, Berkshire revealed a 3-million-share stake in Macy's, valued at approximately $55 million — a modest position by Berkshire's standards but one that sent Macy's shares surging 6.3% in after-hours trading.
The New York Times also climbed after-hours following the confirmation of Berkshire's expanded position.

The Macy's investment raises eyebrows in an era when traditional department store retail has been written off by many institutional investors as a structurally challenged business.
That Berkshire sees value there — even in a small position — is the kind of contrarian signal that markets have learned, over decades, to take seriously.

The Abel Era Takes Shape

Friday's filing offers the clearest window yet into what Berkshire Hathaway looks like under Greg Abel's stewardship — and the picture that emerges is one of purposeful evolution rather than wholesale revolution. The conglomerate's largest and most iconic holdings remain intact: Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, and Chevron continue to anchor the portfolio, and are generally understood to be Abel's positions.

But the edges of the portfolio are being redrawn with confidence. Alphabet tripled. Delta re-entered. Visa and Mastercard exited. Amazon sold. The New York Times doubled.

Berkshire also continues to own dozens of operating businesses spanning the breadth of the American economy — from the BNSF railroad and Geico car insurance to energy and manufacturing operations and consumer brands including Brooks running shoes, Dairy Queen, Fruit of the Loom, and See's Candies.

The empire Buffett built is intact. The man now flying it is making clear, quarter by quarter, that he intends to chart his own course.