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In this episode, Matthew Cochrane welcomes back Bill Brewster, the host of The Business Brew podcast, for a wide-ranging conversation that touches on a variety of investment topics and companies. The pair begin their talk with Brewster sharing his recent experiences at the Markel (NYSE:MKL) and Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A)(NYSE:BRK.B) annual investor conferences.  

Markel's primary business offers niche insurance underwriting services. The company then uses its float and profits from the insurance business to invest in private companies and public equities. Cochrane asks Brewster if the right way to think about Markel is to think of it as a mini-Berkshire. 

"I think they have looked at what Berkshire has done and seen the power of it. I don't know that you can sort of do the 'This is a mini-Berkshire' mental heuristic. I think that probably understates what Berkshire is." 

The conversation then naturally shifts to Berkshire Hathaway and its bull case after Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are no longer there. Brewster believes Berkshire will prove resilient but is unsure if it can outperform the S&P 500 in the years ahead.  

Brewster and Cochrane then discuss how AI will impact society and how it will affect Big Tech and the competition among them, primarily focusing on Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).  

Brewster and Cochrane then hit on: 

• Are U.S. investors letting home country bias impact their returns? 

• Why Brewster is more concerned about Alphabet than Meta over the next five years; 

• Why Disney is becoming a much more difficult company to value. 

To follow Bill Brewster check out his podcast The Business Brew on any major podcast platform.