Buffett is going to enter the field of AI? Which AI companies has he invested 398.7 billion in?

While it’s not obvious that Buffett is chasing the latest stock market trends, a look at Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio shows that many of the stocks the company holds are benefiting from artificial intelligence. Buffett has led Berkshire Hathaway Holdings since 1965. He likes to invest in companies with stable growth, reliable profitability, strong management teams, and shareholder-friendly initiatives such as dividend payments and stock repurchase programs. The strategy is working, with Berkshire returning a staggering 4,384,748% from 1965 to 2023. That’s a compound annual return of 19.8%, nearly double the 10.2% annual return of the S&P 500 over the same period.

In dollar terms, a $1,000 investment in Berkshire Hathaway stock in 1965 would have grown to more than $43 million, while the same investment in the S&P 500, with dividends reinvested, would be worth just $312,333.

Buffett isn't an investor who chases the latest trends in the stock market, so you won't see him flocking to hot artificial intelligence stocks these days.

However, three stocks that Berkshire currently owns will benefit greatly from artificial intelligence, and even account for more than 45% of Berkshire's total portfolio of publicly traded securities, totaling $398.7 billion.

In the first quarter of fiscal 2025, which ended on April 30, Snowflake's product revenue reached $789.6 million, up 34% year-on-year. On the surface, this is a strong growth rate, but it is a slowdown from previous quarters.

While Snowflake continues to invest heavily in growth initiatives such as marketing and research and development, its pace of acquiring new customers is slowing, and existing customers are expanding their consumption even more slowly.

Berkshire Hathaway bought a stake in Snowflake during the data cloud specialist's IPO in 2020, so the price per share was probably around $120.

In 2021, the company's shares soared to a high of $392, but have since fallen 63% from that level, with the current share price at $142. Unfortunately, due to the company's slowing growth, the share price still seems quite expensive, so investors may want to avoid this Berkshire stock pick.

02.

Amazon: 0.5% of Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio

Berkshire bought Amazon (AMZN1.22%) shares in 2019, and Buffett has repeatedly expressed regret for not discovering this opportunity earlier. Amazon was founded as an e-commerce company, and later expanded into cloud computing, streaming media, digital advertising, and now artificial intelligence.

Its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing division designs its own data center chips, which can reduce the cost of AI developers by up to 50% compared to other infrastructure using Nvidia chips.

In addition, Amazon's Bedrock platform also provides developers with a library of ready-made LLMs from some of the industry's leading startups, in addition to Amazon's own LLM series called Titan.

Essentially, AWS wants to become the preferred destination for developers who intend to create their own artificial intelligence applications. Various Wall Street forecasts suggest that artificial intelligence will add $7 trillion to $200 trillion in revenue to the global economy in the next decade, which may become Amazon's biggest opportunity ever.

Berkshire Hathaway holds a $2 billion stake in Amazon, accounting for only 0.5% of the conglomerate's stock portfolio.

In the long run, AI could drive Amazon to massive growth. So if Buffett just wanted this position to be bigger before, he may kick himself for not adding to it sooner now that the new chapter of AI has begun.

03.

Apple: 44.5% of Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio

Apple Inc. (AAPL2.16%) is Berkshire Hathaway's largest holding to date. The conglomerate has spent about $38 billion accumulating shares since 2016, and its holding is currently worth $177.6 billion.

Apple makes the world's most popular electronic devices, including the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, and Mac computers.

The company is moving into artificial intelligence with its new Apple Intelligence software, which will be released in September alongside the iOS18 operating system.

The software, developed in collaboration with OpenAI, will transform the user experience of Apple devices. The Siri voice assistant will leverage the power of ChatGPT, and similarly, its writing tools such as Notes, Mail, and iMessage will also leverage the power of ChatGPT to help users quickly produce content.

There are more than 2.2 billion active Apple devices worldwide, which means Apple could soon become the largest company distributing AI technology to consumers.

The upcoming iPhone 16 is expected to feature powerful new chips capable of handling AI workloads on-device, potentially sparking a significant upgrade cycle.

Apple meets all of Buffett’s stock-picking criteria. Since Berkshire’s first investment in 2016, the company has grown steadily, remains profitable, has a steadfast leader in CEO Cook, and has returned significant capital to shareholders through dividends and stock buybacks.

In fact, Apple just announced a new $110 billion buyback program, the largest in U.S. corporate history.