Berkshire Hathaway Buys NY Times, Trims Apple Stake
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway revealed new investments in Chevron, Chubb, Domino’s, Lamar Advertising, and the New York Times, funded by trimming its major holdings in Apple and Bank of America. The investment in the Times is notable, as Buffett's company purchased the stock for six consecutive quarters after previously exiting newspaper holdings.
- Warren Buffett famously declared the newspaper industry "toast" when he sold Berkshire Hathaway's entire portfolio of local papers (BH Media Group) for $140 million in 2020. Even then, however, he speculated that nationally recognized brands like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal might still thrive. - The New York Times has backed this theory with strong performance, seeing its digital-only subscription revenues grow by 13.9% in the fourth quarter of 2025. The company's digital ad revenue also jumped by nearly 25% in the same period. - Berkshire's new stake in the Times is valued at over $350 million, or roughly 0.13% of its total equity portfolio. Due to the investment's relatively small size, it may have been made by one of Berkshire's investment managers, Todd Combs or Ted Weschler, rather than Buffett himself. - The 4.3% trim of the Apple stake is part of a larger pattern of selling that began in 2024 to manage the position's heavy concentration in the portfolio. In the same quarter, Berkshire made a much more significant reduction in another tech holding, selling 77% of its shares in Amazon. - Despite the trimming, Apple remains Berkshire's largest holding by far, with a value of approximately $62 billion, making up nearly 23% of the conglomerate's stock portfolio at the end of 2025. - The portfolio changes occurred in the final quarter of Warren Buffett's tenure as CEO. His successor, Greg Abel, officially took over the chief executive role at the start of 2026.
