After 60 years at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett has stepped down. While in the leadership role, he heavily influenced the holdings of that company, and he typically bought stocks with a holding period of "forever" in mind.
Knowing that, investors should assume his influence over Berkshire will be felt for some time to come. Some of those stocks could also soar in 2026, and these two have a good shot at earning market-beating returns.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
1. Alphabet
Much has been made about the recovery of Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL 1.67%) (GOOG 1.76%). As recently as last spring, the stock struggled amid perceptions that its artificial intelligence (AI) offerings were trailing competitors who were going to gradually supplant its long-dominant search engine.
However, the company pledged between $91 billion and $93 billion in capital expenditures (capex) last year to compete in AI, and its investments seem to be paying off.
Improvements in Gemini and the rising prominence of Waymo have wowed investors. Also, in Q3, Alphabet reported nearly $74 billion in free cash flow over the previous year, a figure that does not include capex spending. That indicates the company continues to prosper despite its massive AI investments.
Last year, Buffett and his team took notice, adding over 17.8 million shares in the third quarter of 2025. Admittedly, Berkshire has relatively few lucrative options to invest its $382 billion in liquidity, but the $4.3 billion investment made it nearly 2% of Berkshire's portfolio.
Additionally, it may not be too late to buy. Its P/E ratio of 31 matches the S&P 500 average and makes it the second-cheapest "Magnificent Seven" stock, as measured by the earnings multiple.
NASDAQ: GOOGL
Key Data Points
As it continues to invest in itself and improve its technology and lead the next wave of tech innovation, it is likely Alphabet stock will continue moving higher over the next year.
2. Amazon
Like Alphabet, Amazon (AMZN 1.38%) is also on track to benefit from its AI innovation. As the leading company in e-commerce and the cloud, it is likely not surprising that Amazon has emerged as a leader in AI.
To that end, it reported in Q3 that it invested $120 billion in capex over the previous 12 months. Still, Amazon generated $15 billion in free cash flow even after making that investment.
That huge investment may be paying off as it leverages AI for tasks such as expanding its cloud business, finding more sales opportunities, and refining its digital advertising business.
Despite that investment, the stock has plateaued recently as investors have sold AI stocks in recent weeks. In addition, the cloud segment AWS has faced increasing competition from Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and others, which has placed pressure on the stock.
NASDAQ: AMZN
Key Data Points
Also, Berkshire acquired most of its Amazon shares in 2019 and even sold a very small portion of its shares in later quarters.
Still, that selling ended in 2023. Also, despite its elevated P/E ratio in the past, Amazon's shares have become much cheaper. Today, the stock sells at just 32 times earnings, making it only marginally more expensive than Alphabet.
Amid such conditions, investors may have an excellent opportunity to follow Buffett's team in Amazon stock. Over time, the stock should resume its move higher as its considerable investments in AI begin paying off.
