Greg Abel told CNBC that Berkshire Hathaway is pursuing AI on two paths. He did not specify what those paths are. He did not explain how they work. He did not mention a timeline. He said the word "two" and then stopped talking like a man who just remembered he left the stove on.
Berkshire owns BNSF Railway and a bunch of insurance companies. The AI strategy appears to be: make trains show up on time using algorithms, and let computers deny claims faster than humans can. Groundbreaking stuff. Really pushing the boundaries of what we thought possible in 2015.
Retail traders heard "Berkshire" and "AI" in the same sentence and immediately started Googling whether Warren Buffett owns Nvidia. He does not. He owns Apple, which makes phones for people to lose money on Robinhood. Close enough for the average portfolio destroyer who thinks DD means double down.
The two paths are probably this: Path One is hiring someone under sixty to explain what a GPU does. Path Two is waiting for that person to die so they can go back to buying railroads. Berkshire has spent decades perfecting the art of showing up late to every party and still making money. AI will be no different.
Abel became CEO in 2023 after Buffett finally admitted that mortality applies to billionaires too. His big innovation so far has been doing interviews where he says vague things about technology. The stock is up anyway because Berkshire could announce they're pivoting to competitive eating and institutions would still buy it.
Two paths forward. Zero details provided. Infinite confidence from people who will buy the stock regardless. Berkshire just described every corporate AI strategy ever attempted, and somehow that counts as news worth trading on.
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