Buffett’s Berkshire made these boring AI bets years before AI took off

Warren Buffett became famous for staying away from the hottest corners of the market, including Artificial Intelligence (AI). But much before AI became a thing, Berkshire Hathaway took a position that would make it benefit from one of AI’s biggest and least glamorous requirements. The sector is electricity! The investment is certainly not a fresh bet on AI. Berkshire’s exposure to the power infrastructure AI needs predated today’s AI boom, showing how Buffett’s pick for essential businesses intersects with technology industry trends. AI data centres require enormous amounts of electricity to train and run powerful models. Now, as technology companies race to expand their computing capacity, power demand is becoming an essential part of the AI investment story. And that makes Berkshire’s energy businesses interesting. The company owns major utility operations, including MidAmerican Energy and NV Energy. These businesses stand to benefit as data centres increase electricity consumption. Berkshire’s Iowa utility business is already seeing data centres become a meaningful part of its electricity load. Berkshire CEO Greg Abel, who took over from Buffett in 2025, said during Berkshire’s annual conference in May that 8% of Berkshire’s energy load in Iowa came from data centers last year. The AI revolution is also creating oppotunities beyond electricity generation itself. For example, Berkshire owns Precision Castparts, a manufacturer of components used in aircraft engines and other industrial applications. Its businesses can benefit from the broader investment required to expand power-generation capacity. These bet Berkshire’s AI exposure exetremely different from the traditional technology-stock trade. Investors looking for an AI winner have largely focused on chipmakers, cloud companies and software firms. Berkshire, instead, owns businesses supplying some of the physical infrastructure required to keep the technology running. AI may be transforming the technology industry at an extraordinary speed, but its infrastructure needs remain remarkably conventional. Data centres need land, construction, equipment and, above all, reliable power. For Berkshire, that means a bet made before the AI boom could become increasingly relevant as the technology’s electricity appetite grows. “He has long understood that you need to own companies that the economy simply cannot function without,” Ken Mahoney, president and CEO at Mahoney Asset Management told CNN. “Sometimes in business, boring is what makes the most consistent profits.” Buffett stepped down on Friday as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, ending more than six decades building the conglomerate and making himself perhaps the world's most revered investor. Buffett, 96, was named chairman emeritus, with his oldest son Howard Buffett, 71, a director since 1993, becoming non-executive chairman. The change came nearly nine months after Buffett stepped down as chief executive officer, handing the reins to longtime lieutenant Greg Abel. Warren Buffett remains a director. Known as the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett transformed Berkshire from a failing New England textile company into a $1.1 trillion conglomerate. He promoted a value-oriented investment philosophy that influenced generations of investors and executives, with a folksiness that made him understandable and endeared him to people around the world. Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates. Oops! Looks like you have exceeded the limit to bookmark the image. Remove some to bookmark this image.