Berkshire’s Quiet Offensive: Power Lines, Plane Tickets, and a $36 Billion AI Proxy

Greg Abel is not building data centers. He is not designing chips. And he is certainly not chasing the latest large-language-model startup. Instead, the Berkshire Hathaway chief executive is positioning the conglomerate to profit from the artificial-intelligence boom the way Berkshire has always profited from industrial revolutions: by selling the picks and shovels — or, in this case, the electricity and the equity stakes.

That strategy came into sharper focus this week following a series of disclosures and an interview that painted a picture of a company deploying its vast balance sheet with an aggressiveness not seen in years. The approach is two-pronged: Berkshire’s energy arm will supply power to the data centers that AI demands, while the conglomerate’s equity portfolio leans on a nearly $36 billion stake in Alphabet as an indirect play on the technology itself.

Power Without the Backlash

Abel was explicit about one thing: the push to serve AI-driven electricity demand must not come at the expense of residential customers. Tariffs for households and other existing ratepayers will remain insulated from the capital spending required to build out capacity for data centers. That is a deliberate piece of positioning in a debate that has grown increasingly contentious. Reports cite more than 140 protests against data center projects across over 40 US states in July alone, and polling suggests two-thirds of Americans oppose such facilities being built in their neighborhoods.

By framing Berkshire’s role as that of a neutral infrastructure provider, Abel sidesteps the reputational heat while still capturing the upside of surging power demand. The company effectively monetizes the AI buildout without ever having to defend a single server farm before a zoning board.

The second lever is the Alphabet stake, which Berkshire built through a $10 billion direct purchase in the spring, secured at a 6.5 percent discount. That position now ranks among the conglomerate’s core holdings and serves as its primary vehicle for participating in the AI boom without becoming an operator of digital infrastructure.

A Rare Bet on Airlines

The Alphabet position was not the only notable portfolio move during the second quarter. Berkshire expanded its stake in Delta Air Lines by 44 percent, a purchase worth roughly $1.6 billion. For a company whose late founder Warren Buffett long viewed airlines with deep skepticism — citing heavy fixed costs and volatile demand — the move signals a more selective assessment of individual carriers within the sector.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Berkshire Hathaway?

The Delta purchase marks the conglomerate’s most significant foray into aviation in years and forms part of a broader pattern of renewed activity in public markets. Berkshire recorded net stock purchases for the first time since 2022 during the second quarter, with total buy-side activity reaching approximately $20 billion. Alongside the Delta and Alphabet additions, the company continued trimming its long-standing stake in Bank of America.

Tokyo Roots Run Deep

Abel also reaffirmed a commitment that spans decades rather than quarters: Berkshire intends to hold its positions in Japan’s five major trading houses for many years to come. The conglomerate now owns stakes exceeding 10 percent in each of those firms.

The rationale, Abel suggested, lies in the interest-rate environment. Ten-year Japanese government bonds now yield above 3 percent — a three-decade high that Abel nonetheless characterized as “relatively moderate.” That framing underscores how Berkshire continues to evaluate opportunities through a multi-decade lens rather than reacting to short-term market cycles. The Japanese holdings come with expectations of rising earnings, and potentially higher dividends and share buybacks at the trading companies themselves.

Buybacks and Balance-Sheet Firepower

The equity purchases tell only part of the story. Berkshire also repurchased $4.5 billion of its own stock during the second quarter, marking the most aggressive buyback pace in several years. The combination of net market purchases, the Delta expansion, and ongoing buybacks reflects a management team under Abel that is putting the conglomerate’s liquidity to work far more broadly than it has in recent memory.

For all that activity, the market’s response has been muted. Berkshire shares closed Friday at €653,500, down 0.3 percent on the day. The stock sits 4.7 percent below its 52-week high of €686,000, reached on August 10, and has shed roughly 3.0 percent over the past 30 days. Year to date, however, the shares remain up 2.6 percent.

Whether the selective bets on airlines, technology giants, and Japanese trading houses will translate into portfolio-level outperformance remains an open question. What is clear is that Berkshire under Abel is no longer content to sit on its cash pile — it is actively seeking exposure to the defining technological trend of the era, but on its own conservative terms. The infrastructure provider approach, the discounted Alphabet entry, the decades-long Tokyo commitments: each reflects a company willing to engage with the future, provided it can do so at a price and structure it finds comfortable.