Berkshire Hathaway Bets on the "Old Economy"
Stocks related to artificial intelligence have been the rage lately in markets. While AI stocks have ballooned in value this spring, investors have shunned the more "boring" sectors of the economy. Facing slow sales growth and a consumer stretched by inflation and a recent spike in oil prices, many consumer-facing businesses have fallen to valuations rarely seen since the global financial crisis.
While the market was swooning over Anthropic's surging revenues and ever-inflating expectations for compute demand, Berkshire had its sights set in a very different place. During the quarter ending March 31st, the company bought $2.6 billion worth of Delta Airlines, $1.26 billion of stock in New York Times, and added $877 million to its existing investment in homebuilder Lennar Corp. On June 1st, the company went even further by acquiring homebuilder Taylor Morrison in a deal valued at around $8.5 billion including debt.
Staying true to its roots, Berkshire continues to invest in unpopular companies facing temporary headwinds. While these are some of the first investments made under new CEO Greg Abel, they certainly align with the investing philosophy of his famous predecessor.
This isn't to say Berkshire is passing on AI entirely. In addition to the above purchases, the company nearly tripled its holding in Alphabet — and more recently announced an additional $10 billion investment in Alphabet. That makes Alphabet one of the largest individual investments Berkshire has ever made. The last time the company bought this much stock in a single company was Apple between 2016 and 2018. Alphabet currently stands as the 2nd largest individual stock holding among Tilia clients.
Reflecting on 15 Years
On June 1st, Tilia Fiduciary Partners turned 15 years old. What was then a three-person upstart managing roughly $40 million has grown into an eight-person operation managing over $430 million.* We've made some mistakes and learned plenty of lessons along the way. What follows is a short list of those lessons.
* as of July 2026
It pays to be an optimist
American capitalism and innovation is still the envy of the world. Market setbacks occur and the economy endures rough patches, but in the end we always find a way to "muddle through" and emerge stronger.
In the past 98 years, the S&P 500 has finished positively 72 times and in the red 26 times. Without exception, those 26 down years proved to be buying opportunities. 84% of all 3-year periods have been positive for stocks, 88% of 5-year periods, and 94% of 10-year periods.
The last 15 years have been a microcosm of this data. We've had a European debt crisis, several major bear markets for energy companies, a riot in the U.S. Capitol, wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and even a global pandemic. Despite all of that, the S&P 500 has finished positively 80% of the time, with only one year worse than a 20% drop.
Clients are the best part
Most people find fulfillment at work by knowing they are helping people. As much as we love investments, financial planning, and research, the feeling of getting clients to a better place in their financial lives is what makes this all worthwhile. While some clients started as friends, a far greater number started as clients and grew into friends. For that, we are incredibly lucky.
Balance is everything
"A healthy man wants a thousand things. A sick man only wants one." — Confucius
We've seen far too many cases where clients save religiously their entire working lives, only to retire and quickly lose their health. We cannot stress enough how important it is to enjoy some of the fruits of your labor along the way. We also find that many clients who save every available penny have a very hard time spending that money in retirement.
It doesn't show up on your balance sheet, but one of the best investments you can make is in your own health and wellness. Spending money on a therapist, a trainer, a gym membership, a healthier diet, or preventative treatments that mitigate the risk of heart disease and diabetes can have a better return on investment than any stock.
Hiring is the hardest part
Hiring and firing decisions are probably the most difficult part of operating a small business. Each decision you make along the way makes you a little better at it, but mistakes will never be totally avoidable. It does not matter how well someone interviews — you won't really know if someone will work out until you've worked alongside them for at least a few weeks.
In a small business, every personality has a major impact on the overall group. Finding a group of intelligent people with diverse backgrounds and skillsets, that also get along well and share the attention to detail required to work for us, is a tall task. Lucky for us, we can honestly say that we have the best and brightest group of people we've ever had — and it seems to just keep getting better.
Thank you to all of our clients. We love working for you, and we're excited to see what the next 15 years have in store for us all.