Berkshire Hathaway has agreed to purchase $10 billion of Alphabet stock in a private placement, acquiring $5 billion of Class A shares at approximately $352 each and $5 billion of Class C shares at around $348 each. This represents roughly a 6% discount to Monday's market price of over $370 per share. The purchase follows an $8.5 billion acquisition of Taylor Morrison Home Corporation announced the previous day. Berkshire already holds approximately $17 billion in Alphabet shares as of 31 March, having significantly increased its position since last year. The new investment would bring total Alphabet holdings to over $32 billion. Under new CEO Greg Abel, who took over from Warren Buffett on 1 January, Berkshire is deploying its $380 billion cash pile after years of cautious capital management.

Google has released new desktop applications for Windows and MacOS, marking a shift from its traditional web-based approach. The Google app for Windows, which emerged from beta testing that began last September, is now officially available. Users can access it by pressing Alt + Space to open a floating search interface that queries both web content and local files. The app includes AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Google Lens functionality for screen-based searches. It requires Windows 10 or 11 and currently supports English only. For MacOS, Google has launched its first native Gemini app, built entirely in Swift in under 100 days. Accessible via Option + Space, the app offers full Gemini features including Deep Research, Canvas, and various AI models. Notably, it's distributed via direct download rather than the App Store.

Google has released a standalone Gemini app for macOS, giving Mac users easier access to its AI assistant. The app is available as a free download and can be accessed using an Option-Space keyboard shortcut. Beyond standard capabilities like writing emails, drafting reports and planning trips, Gemini can analyse content displayed on the user's Mac screen, including open files and applications. The release, announced in a Wednesday blog post, expands Google's AI assistant availability on Apple devices.