Why did Berkshire Hathaway sell all its shares in Visa and Mastercard?

Berkshire sold every share it owned in Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) after Greg Abel began cleaning up parts of the stock portfolio tied to former investment manager Todd Combs.

The sale came out in Berkshire Hathaway’s latest quarterly filing on Friday, and investors spent Monday reading through the new buys, cuts, and full exits. Greg took over from Warren Buffett at the start of the year, so this filing gave the market an early look at what Berkshire looks like under his control.

The same filing showed that Berkshire also raised its newer stake in Alphabet (GOOGL), pushing Google’s parent company into seventh place among its largest holdings.

It also reduced its stake in Chevron (CVX). But the full exits from Visa, Mastercard, and Amazon (AMZN) stood out because all three were seen as stocks linked to Todd, who left Berkshire at the end of 2025 to join JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

Visa posts strong numbers while stablecoins and AI put pressure on card fees

The strange part is that Visa was still reporting solid business numbers while Berkshire was heading for the exit. Christopher Suh, Visa’s finance chief, said the latest quarter was the company’s strongest growth period in more than 10 years, excluding the pandemic rebound.

Visa’s value-added services revenue reached $3.3 billion. That was 30% of total revenue, with growth of 27% from a year earlier. Its commercial and money transfer business grew 24%. U.S. payment volume also picked up.

Cross-border payments held up even with pressure from the Middle East conflict and the timing of Ramadan. Activity improved through the middle of May. Spending on both debit and credit cards stayed healthy across income levels.

However, Visa has not been the most preferred company for investment purposes by investors in 2026. The pressure will come from the stablecoin and artificial intelligence sectors. Every cryptocurrency holder is aware that, in case the transaction process is more cost-effective through AI or blockchain rails, then there is no need to use credit cards.

Visa and Mastercard both realize the importance of adaptation. Visa has embraced tokenized payments as well. More than half of the total payments in the e-commerce sector using Visa are now based on tokens – a rise of around 30% compared to the previous year.

Greg Abel cuts Todd Combs-linked holdings as Berkshire resets the stock book

Todd was recruited by Warren to help run Berkshire’s stock portfolio with Ted Weschler. Before joining Berkshire, Todd had already shown interest in payment stocks through his old hedge fund work. That history matters because Visa and Mastercard were among the earlier holdings connected to him inside Berkshire.

By the end of 2025, Berkshire still owned about $2.91 billion in Visa shares and about $2.28 billion in Mastercard shares. Visa was the company’s 13th-largest stock position. Mastercard was close behind at 15th.

Berkshire first bought Visa in early 2011. Since then, Visa shares returned more than 1,750% with dividends reinvested. So this was not some failed trade getting thrown out with the trash. It had made serious money.

The Wall Street Journal reported in April that Greg had started selling a group of stocks bought and managed by Todd. Visa and Mastercard were believed to be part of that group. That makes the sale look less like a vote against the card companies and more like Greg removing positions tied to the old manager.

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