A reel on Instagram, claiming that veteran investor Warren Buffett - the current CEO of Berkshire Hathaway - earns $1500 crores ($11.5 billion) from simply investing in Google is false. Publicly available evidence and the holdings of Berkshire Hathaway show that Buffett is currently not a shareholder of Google (through its parent company Alphabet).
Further, Buffett has previously stated that he regrets not holding Google in his portfolio.
The reel shows, a motivational speaker, Harshvardhan Jain. He tries to convey that Sundar Pichai, who is the CEO of Google and works for 15 hours a day its boss, earns meagerly as compared to Warren Buffett, who earns $11.5 billion ($1500 crores in the speaker's words) by putting in little effort and just by staying invested in the company.
It has 13.5 million plays and 1.5 million likes.
The reel can be seen below.
This is false since the Berkshire Hathaway has no investments in Google (trading as Alphabet Inc.).
According to publicly available information compiled from filings made by Hathaway to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the market watchdog in the United States, large tech companies in which Berkshire Hathaway has stakes in are Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
Berkshire holds a 5.6% stake in Apple, and the company makes up 39.8% of Berkshire's portfolio with holdings worth just above $138 billion. In Amazon, Berkshire holds a 0.1% stake, with Amazon making up of 0.3% of Berkshire's holdings.
This information is as of December 31, 2021, reported in February 2022.
Other non-tech companies having a significant slice in Berkshire's holdings are:
- Coca-Cola (beverages and consumer edibles): 7.5%
- Bank of America (banking): 10.8%
- Chevron (automobiles): 8%
- American Express (finance): 7%
- Kraft Heinz (food and consumer edibles): 4.2%
It's entire portfolio can be seen here.
This claim can also be verified by looking at Alphabet's holdings, which can be seen here with the Nasdaq. It does not have Berkshire Hathaway as a stakeholder. Alphabet's single largest stakeholder is the Vanguard Group, one of the world's largest providers of asset services, mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs).
Furthermore, Warren Buffett has previously expressed his regret at not being an investor in Google.
Further, there are no public reports or disclosures that Berkshire has invested in Alphabet Inc.