23.6% of Berkshire Hathaway's Portfolio Is Invested in These 3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks. Which One Is the Best?

After years of telling shareholders that he wasn't into tech stocks, Warren Buffett now has three top tech stocks in his Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A)(NYSE: BRK.B) portfolio.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is still the largest position at 21.2% of the total despite the holding company's continuing to sell off more of it. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is still a small position, representing 0.7% of its total holdings.

The only new stock Buffett and his team bought in the third quarter was Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL), the parent of Google. It's only 1.7% of the portfolio, but that still puts it in 10th place out of 41 stocks.

These are some of the most valuable companies in the world, and they're all investing in artificial intelligence (AI). So, which one is the best of the bunch?

Image source: Getty Images.

The case for Apple: Its ecosystem

Buffett has made no secret of his love for Apple and its leader, Tim Cook. He has praised them both many times and said straight out that he would never sell the stock. But as Buffett's tenure as CEO comes to an end, that may change for Berkshire Hathaway.

The Oracle of Omaha loves companies that have products everyone wants and needs, making them a part of the fabric of society, and that itself is an edge over any competition. Apple has an ecosystem of connecting products with superior quality, and customers become loyal fans, buying new upgrades and complementary devices.

The company lost some market enthusiasm last year as AI thrived, and it looked like Apple was lagging. But with iPhone sales booming, it doesn't appear that the Apple users to whom this would matter are finding it a problem.

The Apple 17 upgrade, which was launched in September, has been selling like hotcakes. The iPhone now accounts for 25% of all smartphones in China, driving smartphone sales to increase 37% in the region in October, according to Counterpoint Research.

I wouldn't count Apple out from the AI race in any case. In fact, Bloomberg reported that it recently made a deal with Alphabet to use the company's Gemini large language model to revamp Siri, Apple's voice assistant.

The case for Amazon: The varied businesses

Amazon is the second-largest company in the world by sales, powered by its twin growth engines: e-commerce and cloud computing. It has a lead in both of these industries, giving it a powerful position on the global tech scene.

It has around 40% of the U.S. market for e-commerce, a lead so large it's nearly impenetrable, at least in the near term. E-commerce continues to increase as a percentage of retail sales, providing organic growth opportunities. The company is also upgrading its fulfilment infrastructure to improve delivery speed, reaching more customers with same- or next-day delivery, and generating greater loyalty among customers.

Of course, today the greatest opportunities are in AI. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the largest cloud provider in the world, with about 30% market share. That's still a strong lead, and it's investing more than any competitor -- $125 billion in 2025 alone -- in keeping its lead.

Buffett loves companies that play a large role in the economy and have incomparable brand names, which is why he has so many market leaders in his portfolio. Amazon fits the bill.

The case for Alphabet: The economic moat

As Buffett takes a step back from Berkshire Hathaway, it's likely that one of the investing directors, Todd Combs or Ted Weschler, was responsible for the Alphabet purchase. Buffett has stated that they pressed the button on Amazon, and that's probably what happened here, too.

But in many ways, Alphabet fits right into the Buffett model. It has a wide lead over any competitor, accounting for around 90% of internet search traffic. That's an economic moat that few companies can claim in any industry.

And it's still growing quickly -- sales were up 16% in the third quarter. It has a tremendous advertising business, and it's using AI to provide real value for its customers. Its Gemini large language model (LLM) helps advertisers create targeted campaigns, and the company also offers Gemini for its cloud customers to create AI apps like AWS.

Alphabet has several businesses besides Google and Google Cloud, including YouTube and a device business. It's a formidable combination.

Which is the best AI stock to buy today?

Like Buffett, and most investors, I see reasons to buy each of these stocks, and I recommend them all to investors. However, most individual portfolios don't need three top AI stocks.

If I could only recommend one today, I'd probably go with Amazon. I like its two huge businesses that are in different spaces, and the retail e-commerce piece gives it some resilience in case the market goes sour. But if AI continues to build and drive the economy, it's well positioned to succeed.

Jennifer Saibil has positions in Apple. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.