Y
HN HRCB new | past | comments | ask | show | by right | domains | dashboard | about hrcb
+0.11 Warren Buffett dumps $1.7B of Amazon stock (finbold.com)
173 points by fauria 6 days ago | 181 comments on HN | Mild positive Editorial · vv3.4 · 2026-02-24
Article Heatmap
Preamble: ND — Preamble Preamble: No Data — Preamble P Article 1: ND — Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood Article 1: No Data — Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood 1 Article 2: ND — Non-Discrimination Article 2: No Data — Non-Discrimination 2 Article 3: ND — Life, Liberty, Security Article 3: No Data — Life, Liberty, Security 3 Article 4: ND — No Slavery Article 4: No Data — No Slavery 4 Article 5: ND — No Torture Article 5: No Data — No Torture 5 Article 6: ND — Legal Personhood Article 6: No Data — Legal Personhood 6 Article 7: ND — Equality Before Law Article 7: No Data — Equality Before Law 7 Article 8: ND — Right to Remedy Article 8: No Data — Right to Remedy 8 Article 9: ND — No Arbitrary Detention Article 9: No Data — No Arbitrary Detention 9 Article 10: ND — Fair Hearing Article 10: No Data — Fair Hearing 10 Article 11: ND — Presumption of Innocence Article 11: No Data — Presumption of Innocence 11 Article 12: +0.07 — Privacy 12 Article 13: ND — Freedom of Movement Article 13: No Data — Freedom of Movement 13 Article 14: ND — Asylum Article 14: No Data — Asylum 14 Article 15: ND — Nationality Article 15: No Data — Nationality 15 Article 16: ND — Marriage & Family Article 16: No Data — Marriage & Family 16 Article 17: ND — Property Article 17: No Data — Property 17 Article 18: ND — Freedom of Thought Article 18: No Data — Freedom of Thought 18 Article 19: +0.17 — Freedom of Expression 19 Article 20: +0.13 — Assembly & Association 20 Article 21: ND — Political Participation Article 21: No Data — Political Participation 21 Article 22: ND — Social Security Article 22: No Data — Social Security 22 Article 23: ND — Work & Equal Pay Article 23: No Data — Work & Equal Pay 23 Article 24: ND — Rest & Leisure Article 24: No Data — Rest & Leisure 24 Article 25: ND — Standard of Living Article 25: No Data — Standard of Living 25 Article 26: ND — Education Article 26: No Data — Education 26 Article 27: +0.05 — Cultural Participation 27 Article 28: ND — Social & International Order Article 28: No Data — Social & International Order 28 Article 29: ND — Duties to Community Article 29: No Data — Duties to Community 29 Article 30: ND — No Destruction of Rights Article 30: No Data — No Destruction of Rights 30
Negative Neutral Positive No Data
Aggregates
Weighted Mean +0.11 Unweighted Mean +0.11
Max +0.17 Article 19 Min +0.05 Article 27
Signal 4 No Data 27
Confidence 6% Volatility 0.05 (Low)
Negative 0 Channels E: 0.6 S: 0.4
SETL +0.08 Editorial-dominant
Evidence: High: 0 Medium: 3 Low: 1 No Data: 27
Theme Radar
Foundation Security Legal Privacy & Movement Personal Expression Economic & Social Cultural Order & Duties Foundation: 0.00 (0 articles) Security: 0.00 (0 articles) Legal: 0.00 (0 articles) Privacy & Movement: 0.07 (1 articles) Personal: 0.00 (0 articles) Expression: 0.15 (2 articles) Economic & Social: 0.00 (0 articles) Cultural: 0.05 (1 articles) Order & Duties: 0.00 (0 articles)
Domain Context Profile
Element Modifier Affects Note
Privacy
No privacy policy content observable on-domain in provided material.
Terms of Service
No terms of service observable on-domain in provided material.
Accessibility
No accessibility features or statements observable on-domain in provided material.
Mission 0.00
Article 19 Article 20
Domain tagline 'Finance in Bold' suggests general financial information mission. No explicit human rights alignment statement. Neutral modifier applied.
Editorial Code
No editorial standards or ethics code observable on-domain in provided material.
Ownership
No ownership or corporate structure information observable on-domain in provided material.
Access Model +0.05
Article 19
Content appears freely accessible with no paywall indicated. Supports public access to information. Mild positive modifier.
Ad/Tracking
No explicit ad tracking or privacy-invasive policies observable on-domain in provided material.
HN Discussion 20 top-level comments
xvxvx 2026-02-18 18:01 UTC link
Maybe the novelty of Amazon has worn off. I occasionally purchase from their UK site, and it’s filled with tricks to get me to sign up for Prime upon checkout. Really horrible workflow and design decisions, cheapening the experience. I now see similar changes to the US version: ‘you saved $15 in shipping by being a Prime member with this purchase’ and ‘last year you made 211 sustainable product purchases’.

Guys, quit being so desperate. Concentrate on quality items at competitive pricing and fast delivery. Don’t turn into TJ Maxx.

My Echo, that I use solely to voice activating lights and switches, is now an ad machine and one bad day away from going in the trash. Next time you do a wave of layoffs, please include everyone involved in these horrible decisions.

giancarlostoro 2026-02-18 18:09 UTC link
Next time Amazon goes low I'm sure he'll buy it all back at a discount. With all his wealth he can get away with slow patient investing with swathes of cash.
Insanity 2026-02-18 18:23 UTC link
Amazon is pretty volatile stock at the moment, as are most companies that chase the AI bandwagon. I don’t think Amazon is doomed but the companies chasing AI are in for a rough time.

Plus continuing waves of layoffs will lead to more frequent and longer AWS outages, and lower quality of retail products will hurt that side of Amazon.

paxys 2026-02-18 18:23 UTC link
Berkshire Hathaway, not Warren Buffett.

Large stock sales always make headlines but they don't automatically signal bearishness or really anything else. After all what's the point of investing if you never realize gains?

semiquaver 2026-02-18 18:25 UTC link
Berkshire Hathaway has my favorite website (or, WEB page, as they style it) of any big company: https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/
philip1209 2026-02-18 18:29 UTC link
Warren Buffet retired. This is Berkshire Hathaway.
legitster 2026-02-18 18:30 UTC link
Amazon's core business does not make sense. Despite being so massive, their retail operation makes almost no money. There is little market share left for them to win, the best they can do to grow is shave expenses.

AWS has been their real money maker, but also the explosion of AI and server farms has worked against them in threes ways: there is much more competition on infrastructure, the costs to run infrastructure keep going up, if you're looking for a growth industry there are other more appealing stocks now to park your capital.

harmmonica 2026-02-18 18:34 UTC link
It's right in the post, but just to save folks a click it's a 77% drawdown in the position so it's a substantial move. I see they also trimmed Apple, but, for comparison's sake, looks like that was only a decrease of 4.3% of the position.
ckardat123 2026-02-18 19:23 UTC link
Here is a Berkshire Hathaway portfolio tracker if anyone is interested:

https://www.quiverquant.com/institutions/BERKSHIRE%20HATHAWA...

Berkshire also sold around $2.8B of Apple stock, although that was a much smaller move as a percentage of their position.

whatever1 2026-02-18 19:27 UTC link
There is only so much cash a company can burn.

Amazon spent last year 100B in Capex. They announced they will spend 200B this year. These numbers are INSANE. Greater than GDPs of entire countries.

They literally don't have the cash to do it. Either they need to grow their cash flow significantly, or deplete their cash reserves or take a huge loan (likely a combination of them).

Jassy is playing Russian roulette with the company and his career.

sleepyguy 2026-02-18 19:28 UTC link
I’ve heard that Amazon’s capital expenditures have exceeded its annual cash flow, leading it to borrow and cut jobs to fund AI investments. Unlike Microsoft and Google, which appear able to fund capex internally, Amazon seems to be in a costly growth race with deeper-pocketed competitors. My view, this could mean continued heavy borrowing and limited to no profitability in the near term.
ilamont 2026-02-18 19:44 UTC link
My view of Amazon's decline comes from being a "partner" in their seller and publisher ecosystems for years.

The seller platforms in particular (Brand Registry, Vendor Central, Seller Central, Transparency, etc.) have crippling levels of technical debt. The situation has only gotten worse with Jassy's reckless directive for the entire organization to push into Generative AI (https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-ceo-and...). So much basic stuff is just breaking down, and seller support is overwhelmed or unable to intervene to fix the mess.

You can see a small sample here involving problems with product attributes (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/seller-forums/discussions?s...). Google "Amazon AWD delays" or "Amazon CSBA problems" or "Amazon remote fulfillment problems" to see examples of programs that are unable to provide even basic levels of the services promised to sellers.

Meanwhile, Amazon has been so greedy with fees since Jassy took over that sellers of all sizes and many small to midsized brands are being squeezed out of existence or driven off Amazon. Its PPC ad platform is completely predatory, loaded with dark patterns and hidden defaults that add billions to top-line revenue while strip-mining the accounts of sellers who often have no choice but to participate in the auctions.

It's clear that Amazon is running scared when it comes to dealing with new competition, including the Chinese shopping sites and the looming prospect of agentic AI and other new AI-powered shopping tools eating its lunch. For the first time ever last month, I saw an Amazon search results (via Rufus) that actually directed shoppers to third-party brand sites. This would have been heresy 5 years ago.

JMKH42 2026-02-18 19:48 UTC link
The purchasing experience when you buy direct from companies now is usually much easier than it was years ago. A lot of people instinctively turn to Amazon because its one click and stuff is on its way, but with the new payment integrations even small companies have a pretty close to 1 click experience as well. So when I think of buying something on Amazon I always check the actual brands website first now, because I don't want to support Amazon at all or force sellers to eat the overhead.
alkonaut 2026-02-18 19:51 UTC link
Did Amazon hit any major setbacks? Like some antitrust issue? There was talk in Europe about how Amazon should be legally responsible for everything sold on the platform in terms of safety, authenticity and so on even if things are sold directly by third parties. Has that actually happened anywhere? It would make sense but it feels like it would be a financial blow to amazon.
DANmode 2026-02-18 20:06 UTC link
These clowns are trying to charge a family member for an item they received an incorrect item for,

and returned.

They need competition.

kristianp 2026-02-18 20:46 UTC link
Looks like Berkeshire Hathaway is one way to invest in US shares ex-AI. Except for their smallish holding in Google, they now don't own the big AI spenders, whose shares have risen so much in the past year.

I guess they don't see value in Amazon shares any more. AI spend will probably hit their aws profits.

Note that the listing of shares they own doesn't include the companies that are subsidiaries. Like Geico and other insurance companies, BNSF Railway, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, etc.

CoolestBeans 2026-02-18 21:01 UTC link
Just to clarify because it seems like most of the comments aren't understanding. Berkshire sold the Amazon stock in the fourth quarter of last year meaning it is likely the last large move Warren Buffett is going to make as head of Berkshire as he stepped down on December 31 of 2025. That's why the article is titled that way and partly why its significant. Warren Buffett has traditionally been averse to tech stocks but picked up a slug of Amazon in 2019.
kjellsbells 2026-02-18 22:14 UTC link
I have a simple lagging indicator for the US economy, and it's this: when the ads you see focus on price not features, and especially of food, the economy is in a hole and no amount of government sunshine (from either party) persuades me otherwise. In those times, head towards essentials. Food, consumer staples, healthcare. Stay out of tech.

We have ads now for discounts at Taco Bell. Not even Pizza Hut. Taco Bell!

The US economy for regular people is not good.

nfRfqX5n 2026-02-18 22:22 UTC link
Interesting how most people here (a hardcore tech site) are commenting on their experience with Amazon retail
casey2 2026-02-18 22:28 UTC link
Makes sense. Amazon is making VERY bad investments just to pump Bezos' personal investments in related industries
Score Breakdown
ND
Preamble Preamble

Article is factual financial reporting. No observable advocacy regarding fundamental human dignity or equal rights. Score regression to neutral.

ND
Article 1 Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood

Financial reporting content does not directly address equal dignity or rights. No observable evidence either way.

ND
Article 2 Non-Discrimination

Content contains no discrimination or exclusion based on protected characteristics. Neutral reporting context.

ND
Article 3 Life, Liberty, Security

Right to life, liberty, security not addressed in financial reporting content.

ND
Article 4 No Slavery

Slavery and servitude not addressed in financial reporting context.

ND
Article 5 No Torture

Torture and cruel treatment not addressed in financial reporting context.

ND
Article 6 Legal Personhood

Right to recognition as person before law not addressed in financial reporting.

ND
Article 7 Equality Before Law

Equality before law not addressed in financial reporting context.

ND
Article 8 Right to Remedy

Right to remedy for violation not addressed in financial reporting.

ND
Article 9 No Arbitrary Detention

Arbitrary detention not addressed in financial reporting context.

ND
Article 10 Fair Hearing

Right to fair and public hearing not addressed in financial reporting.

ND
Article 11 Presumption of Innocence

Presumption of innocence not addressed in financial reporting context.

+0.07
Article 12 Privacy
Medium Practice
Editorial
+0.10
Structural
+0.05
SETL
+0.07
Combined
ND
Context Modifier
ND

Content reporting on stock transaction is factual news reporting. No arbitrary interference with privacy/reputation observable. Public disclosure of corporate filings is standard practice. Mild positive for transparency in financial markets.

ND
Article 13 Freedom of Movement

Freedom of movement not addressed in financial reporting.

ND
Article 14 Asylum

Asylum and nationality not addressed in financial reporting context.

ND
Article 15 Nationality

Nationality rights not addressed in financial reporting.

ND
Article 16 Marriage & Family

Marriage and family rights not addressed in financial reporting context.

ND
Article 17 Property

Property rights context present but in value-neutral financial reporting; no deprivation narrative observable.

ND
Article 18 Freedom of Thought

Freedom of thought, conscience, religion not addressed in financial reporting.

+0.17
Article 19 Freedom of Expression
Medium Framing Practice
Editorial
+0.15
Structural
+0.10
SETL
+0.09
Combined
ND
Context Modifier
ND

Article reports on publicly disclosed financial information (SEC 13-F filing). Factual journalism supporting freedom of expression and access to public information. Free accessible publication supports information dissemination. Mild positive signal.

+0.13
Article 20 Assembly & Association
Medium Practice
Editorial
+0.10
Structural
+0.05
SETL
+0.07
Combined
ND
Context Modifier
ND

Content represents factual financial journalism without apparent advocacy for illegal assemblies or forced association. Neutral structural approach. Mild positive for enabling free information assembly.

ND
Article 21 Political Participation

Political participation and will of people not addressed in financial reporting.

ND
Article 22 Social Security

Social security and economic rights not addressed in financial reporting context.

ND
Article 23 Work & Equal Pay

Work, employment, and fair wage not addressed in financial reporting content.

ND
Article 24 Rest & Leisure

Rest and leisure not addressed in financial reporting.

ND
Article 25 Standard of Living

Health, food, and standard of living not addressed in financial reporting.

ND
Article 26 Education

Education rights not addressed in financial reporting context.

+0.05
Article 27 Cultural Participation
Low Framing
Editorial
+0.05
Structural
ND
SETL
ND
Combined
ND
Context Modifier
ND

Financial reporting on corporate portfolio decisions. Tangential relation to cultural participation through economic data. Very mild positive for economic information accessibility.

ND
Article 28 Social & International Order

Social and international order for rights not addressed in financial reporting.

ND
Article 29 Duties to Community

Duties to community not addressed in financial reporting.

ND
Article 30 No Destruction of Rights

Prohibition of activities contrary to UDHR not addressed in financial reporting.

About HRCB | By Right | HN Guidelines | HN FAQ | Source | UDHR
build 40c3f5d+6bbr · 2026-02-25 01:36 UTC