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Abel said that Berkshire has clear view of the impacts that AI is having across its portfolio of companies, and that Google's position relative to the emerging technology is strong.

"We have a lot of visibility from within our companies as to how we're using AI, what type of benefits it's delivering, so that brought incremental interest, and then we saw Google as a significant player," he told Quick.

Berkshire took a $10 billion stake in Google 15 months ago at a 6.5% discount, Abel said.

"They hadn't set the size, but recommended that we consider 10 billion. And Warren and I discussed the size. We discussed the size of discount, and I'd recommended six-and-a-half percent discount, and we were comfortable with that," Abel said. "Then ultimately consummated the transaction."

Berkshire added a total of $17 billion of Alphabet shares in the second quarter, making it the third largest holding in Berkshire Hathaway's equity portfolio, according to the company's Q2 portfolio snapshot filed with the SEC in August.

GOOGL year to date

As of the company's last filing, Berkshire owns around 106 million of Alphabet's Class A and Class C shares, currently worth around $36.6 billion. Alphabet purchases were the largest addition to Berkshire's portfolio of the quarter, but Berkshire also bet big on Delta Air Lines, increasing that position by 44%, or roughly $1.6 billion.

Google is one of the five so-called hyperscalers executing huge capital expenditures to expand their computing power to run AI, along with Microsoft, Meta, Amazon and Oracle. Global hyperscaler capex for 2026 is estimated to be around $1 trillion, according to investment bank Goldman Sachs, but there is significant variance within estimates.

"Estimates indicate that the commonly cited forecast for hyperscaler capex of $794 billion likely understates the total amount of global AI capex by around $200 billion. At the same time, the $794 billion figure likely overstates the amount of US investment in AI by $200 billion," Goldman Sachs researchers wrote in an August research analysis.

The question for investors is to what extent these huge investments will pay off and over what time frame.

AI computing workloads are generally split up into the two categories of algorithmic training based on large datasets and inference, or query response.

"A prolonged training-dominant phase extends the ROI timeline as CapEx and R&D continue to be deployed in advance of broad monetization," Goldman Sachs researchers wrote in May. %!s()

As spotted by TheGamer, modder WorldWalker42 released 'Mizora Joins the Party' over what was a long weekend here in the UK. Comissioned by a Reddit user to turn Mizzy into not just a temporary ally in combat, but a proper party member with appropriate chatter and reactions, they've added the means to recruit her upon reaching a certain point in Wyll's questline during act three.

If you do opt to bring her on board, she'll get her own spot in theRivington, Lower City alley, and Elfsong campsites. Telling her to tag along as part of your active party will se her blend in with the established lot thanks to having her own lines reacting to certain story events or locations. "All of Mizora's 'new' dialogue uses repurposed assets from the original game," WorldWalker42 makes clear in the description. "I did not use AI in any way or at any stage of developing this mod. All files were created and edited using the official toolkit or a text editor."

Companion Mizora also comes with a spell allowing het to turn into a human form Larain left unused in the game's files and will make a cameo in the epilogue with a letter reflecting on the choices your character's made. The mod should even work if you play as Wyll, and not mess with any mods affecting him or his questline provided they don't edit certain critical dialogue files.

It's an impressive feat to have pulled off in BG3, though one WorldWalker42 has form for, having done something similar with Dame Aylin and Isobel last month. I personally look forward to the day I can recruit that goblin who tries to force you to smear your face with poo to get into their camp. What, I just think having two excrement-painted warriors charging at them would be enough to convince any boss to stand down.

It's been really cool to see BG3 modders spend plenty of time with the game's modding tools to further flesh out Larian's companion arcs without resorting to an AI-voiced bollocks. See modder Magnetuning's revamp of Wyll's quest for another great example from earlier this year. %!s()

Over the weekend, the 2026 Pokémon World Championships included a flurry of new Pokémon announcements, including the first new Pokémon movie for seven years. Due to launch in theaters next year, Pokémon: Wild Card will feature a TCG player "battling and striving to be a champion", accompanied by a mysterious Mimikyu.

Of course, Mimikyu does not currently have a Mega Evolution — not in the series' original Pokémon X and Y batch of Megas, or in the fresh menagerie introduced last year via Pokémon Legends: Z-A. But there is something odd about the Mimikyu in that poster — do you see it?

Yes, the Mimikyu is glowing with rainbow-colored light — a very similar rainbow-colored light to the effect of Pokémon as Mega Energy, used to Mega Evolve. Is it a coincidence, or something more? And if we are about to see a Mega Mimikyu revealed, when could it debut in video game form?

One popular suggestion is that Mimikyu will evolve in next year's Pokémon Winds and Waves, the franchise's long-awaited 10th generation of games due to arrive exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2. With these games and Pokémon: Wild Card arriving around the same time, this would be a neat teaser — and certainly, anime movies and series have previously featured various Pokémon debuts before they're actually available in-game.

One other avenue for release could be via a final update to Pokémon Legends: Z-A, a game which focuses squarely on Mega Evolution. This would likely make more sense thematically, and there's been no suggestion that Winds and Waves will include Mega Evolution themselves. Indeed, as a new generation of games, the upcoming titles are more likely to feature their own regional mechanic (such as Gigantamax in Sword and Shield, or Terrestrialization in Scarlet/Violet).

Could Mega Mimikyu debut sooner rather than later in Legends: Z-A, as a way to tide fans over while news on Winds and Waves' launch window remains thin on the ground? Or could this all just be another one of Mimikyu's tricks? Fans seem convinced Mega Mimikyu is coming, either way.

Mega Mimikyu would be so goated and I would not be normal about it. I felt that it was such an obvious choice. Mega Mimikyu’s ability should restore disguise https://t.co/l1TzKnlz1Z

— 👑🤴🏻Spoopy🪦💀 (@Prince_Spoopy) September 1, 2026

Mega Mimikyu incoming?? https://t.co/rAu2VWlyZq

— Moxie✨✏️ (@Moxie2D) August 31, 2026

bet on mega mimikyu https://t.co/2aYhRo88DI

— abeo (@CassidyCrpKilla) August 31, 2026

For everything announced during the 2026 Pokémon World Championships and PokémonXP, check out our roundup. Pokémon: Wild Card may be the only feature-length movie announced, but another animated Pokémon project is making its way to screens in 2027. Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch'd and Pichu was announced back in 2025, but news about the series streaming on DisneyXD and more was revealed during a panel at this year's PokémonXP.

Images credit: The Pokémon Company

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

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In an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday, Abel said that while high yields are topical in Japan — with the nation's 10-year bond yield hitting a 30-year high this week — it's manageable, at least for major trading firms in the country. 

"Not a single one of the trading companies raised it as a fundamental challenge right now," he said. "They're still relatively modest when you think about it," Abel added, noting that Japan's yields, while at multi-decade highs, are still low relatively to other bond yields across the world. 

While Japan's multi-decade high in its 10-year bond yield is just above 3%, the U.S. 10-year Treasury Yield hit an almost three-year high on Tuesday when it crossed 4.8%.

Japan bond yield in 2026

Berkshire Hathaway has a greater than 10% stake in five of Japan's largest trading houses — Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui and Sumitomo — which deal with everything from energy to consumer goods. Abel was visiting Tokyo, which included checking in with those five firms along with Berkshire's other investments in the country. 

Abel added that he expects Berkshire will still raise debt as appropriate in yen, despite the high yields.

The investments in the trading houses were originally made under a guarantee that Berkshire would never take double-digit stakes in any of the five. However, Abel said the company received permission from each of the individual trading houses to now own more than 10% in each six years after the initial investment. 

Abel reiterated that the company continues to see value in these investments, which have yielded strong returns for Berkshire as shares of the trading houses have grown substantially since the initial investment six years ago. 

"It's really, one, a long-term investment that we intend to hold for many decades, and then, secondly, we've been building really strong relationships with each of the companies, and looking at other opportunities here in Japan, and for that matter, abroad," he said. "And those are just exceptional discussions." %!s()

Total mortgage application volume rose just 0.8% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's seasonally adjusted index.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances, $832,750 or less, increased to 6.79% from 6.78%, with points decreasing to 0.65 from 0.66, including the origination fee, for loans with a 20% down payment.

"Mortgage rates reached their highest levels in four weeks as investors' concerns about inflation and growing deficits push yields higher across the globe," said Mike Fratantoni, senior vice president and chief economist at the MBA, in a release.

Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home did eke out a small gain, up 2% for the week but still 0.2% lower than the same week one year ago. Last year, rates were 15 basis points lower.

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"In many local markets, potential buyers have plenty of homes to choose, and this is likely supporting transaction volume," Fratantoni said. "Another trend we're monitoring is more borrowers choosing ARMs [adjustable-rate mortgages], with the ARM share back to 8 percent last week, its highest level in 5 weeks."

These ARMs can be fixed for up to 10 years, but the fact that they will adjust to whatever the rate is in the future makes them riskier. The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs last week fell to 5.94%.

Applications to refinance a home loan dropped 1% for the week and were 19% lower than the same week one year ago. With rates as high as they are now, most borrowers have very little incentive to refinance unless they need to pull equity out of their homes.

Mortgage rates continued to move up this week, reaching the highest level since June 2025, according to Mortgage News Daily. %!s()