Buffett’s Last Act: He Dumped Tech and Bought a Newspaper
Warren Buffett’s final quarterly filing as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway just dropped — and it reads like a man who wanted to make a statement on his way out the door.
The Q4 2025 13-F, released late Tuesday, reveals that the 95-year-old Oracle of Omaha spent his last months at the helm doing what he’s always done best: zigging while everyone else zagged. He sold $2.7 billion worth of Apple, dumped 75% of his Amazon stake (roughly $1.7 billion), and trimmed another $2.7 billion of Bank of America. In total, Berkshire was a net seller to the tune of $5 billion during the quarter.
But here’s the part that made Wall Street do a double-take: Buffett opened a brand-new $325 million position in The New York Times. Yes, a newspaper company. Six years after he sold off Berkshire’s entire newspaper empire to Lee Enterprises, the man went back to the newsstand.
NYT shares popped 2% in premarket Wednesday, pushing toward a second consecutive record close. And honestly? The bet makes more Buffett-sense than people realize. The New York Times isn’t your grandfather’s newspaper anymore — it’s a digital subscription juggernaut with 11 million paying subscribers across news, games, cooking, and sports (thanks to its acquisition of The Athletic). Recurring revenue, pricing power, a brand moat wider than the Hudson River. Classic Buffett ingredients.
The other buys tell a similar story. Berkshire added roughly $1.2 billion in Chevron (up 6.6% in shares held), $870 million in insurance giant Chubb (up 9.3%), $160 million more in Domino’s Pizza, and a symbolic 300 shares of billboard company Lamar Advertising. Energy, insurance, pizza, billboards. Not exactly the AI hype train.
Meanwhile, the Apple selling continues. This marks the seventh consecutive quarter Berkshire has trimmed its Apple position, which peaked at nearly $178 billion in late 2023. Even after the latest sale, Apple remains the largest holding at $62 billion — but the direction is unmistakable. Buffett has been methodically de-risking from his most concentrated bet, and the timing looks prescient given Apple’s underperformance this year (down roughly 3% while the S&P 500 pushes higher).
The Amazon exit is even more striking. Selling 75% of a position — roughly $1.7 billion worth — isn’t trimming. That’s heading for the exits. Berkshire also cut Bank of America by another 8.9%, continuing a selling spree that started in mid-2024. Other casualties included nearly half the Atlanta Braves stake, 12% of Aon, and 11% of Pool Corporation.
This was Buffett’s final act as CEO. Greg Abel officially took over on January 1st, and Todd Combs — Buffett’s longtime investment lieutenant and Geico CEO — left Berkshire in December to join JPMorgan. The filing gives us a snapshot of how Buffett wanted to leave the portfolio: leaner on tech, heavier on cash-generating old-economy businesses, and still sitting on a mountain of cash.
Berkshire ended Q4 with $274.2 billion in reportable U.S. equity holdings, but keep in mind — the company also holds massive foreign positions (Japanese trading houses, Insurance Australia Group, and undisclosed German securities) that don’t appear in the 13-F.
The message from Buffett’s farewell portfolio is loud and clear: when everyone’s chasing AI and mega-cap tech, he’s buying newspapers, pizza, oil, and insurance. It’s the most Buffett thing Buffett has ever done. Whether you follow the trades or not, the signal is worth paying attention to — the greatest investor of all time just voted with his wallet, and he voted for boring.