For years, one of the biggest questions surrounding Berkshire Hathaway was what would happen to its enormous cash pile once Warren Buffett was no longer running the company. Investors may be starting to get an answer.<\/p>\n
In his second full quarter as chief executive, Greg Abel is putting Berkshire\u2019s capital to work at a pace the company hasn\u2019t shown in years \u2014 buying stocks, repurchasing Berkshire shares and pursuing major acquisitions as the conglomerate begins its first full year in the post-Buffett era.<\/p>\n
The shift isn\u2019t a matter of Berkshire running low on cash; it remains nowhere close. What has changed is the direction of capital allocation. Berkshire ended the second quarter with approximately $365.5 billion in cash and Treasury bills, down about 8% from the record $397.4 billion it held at the end of March.<\/p>\n
The clearest sign of change is in Berkshire\u2019s stock portfolio. During the first half of 2026, the company purchased approximately $39.4 billion of equities, more than five times the $7.1 billion it bought in the same period last year. After accounting for sales, Berkshire was a net buyer of equities for the first time in 14 consecutive quarters, reversing a stretch in which the company sold roughly $173 billion more in stocks than it purchased between 2022 and 2024, a period in which Buffett repeatedly said he was struggling to find attractive opportunities.<\/p>\n
Among Abel\u2019s most significant moves has been a roughly $10 billion investment in Alphabet, Google\u2019s parent company, along with the completed $6.8 billion acquisition of homebuilder Taylor Morrison. Together, the two transactions represent nearly $17 billion in capital deployed into businesses outside some of Berkshire\u2019s traditional holdings.<\/p>\n
Berkshire has also stepped up purchases of its own stock, repurchasing approximately $4.5 billion of shares in the second quarter, up sharply from $235 million in the first quarter and the company\u2019s largest quarterly buyback since 2021. Based on changes in Berkshire\u2019s outstanding share count, Barron\u2019s has estimated the company repurchased roughly another $3.4 billion of stock in July, putting total buybacks since the end of March at nearly $8 billion.<\/p>\n
Buffett long maintained that Berkshire should repurchase shares only when management believes they trade below intrinsic value. If Abel is holding to that standard, the scale of recent buying suggests he views the stock as attractively priced \u2014 and offers an early signal that he intends to actively manage Berkshire\u2019s capital base rather than simply maintain the policies he inherited.<\/p>\n
Abel took over one of the strongest balance sheets in corporate history when he became CEO on Jan. 1. Buffett spent his final years building Berkshire\u2019s reserves to unprecedented levels, a deliberate choice rather than an accident: rather than lower his standards to put money to work, he allowed cash to accumulate as the company struggled to find investments large enough to meaningfully affect a company of Berkshire\u2019s size. That drew criticism as the cash pile approached $400 billion, but it also left Abel considerable flexibility \u2014 he can buy public equities, acquire entire companies, repurchase shares, or hold hundreds of billions in reserve if markets decline sharply. Even after this year\u2019s spending, Berkshire\u2019s roughly $365 billion cash position remains larger than the market capitalization of all but a small number of American companies.<\/p>\n
Abel isn\u2019t deploying capital against a struggling backdrop. Berkshire\u2019s operating earnings rose approximately 16% from a year earlier to around $13 billion in the second quarter, while revenue climbed about 10% to $101.8 billion. That ongoing cash generation matters: Abel isn\u2019t managing only Buffett\u2019s accumulated reserves but also the continuous output of Berkshire\u2019s insurance operations, the BNSF railroad, Berkshire Hathaway Energy and dozens of other subsidiaries \u2014 meaning even large expenditures don\u2019t fully resolve the company\u2019s cash accumulation.<\/p>\n
It would be premature to conclude from two quarters that Abel is abandoning Buffett\u2019s investment philosophy. Berkshire is still maintaining a substantial liquidity cushion, buying its own stock only when it appears undervalued, and favoring large investments over numerous smaller transactions. What appears to be changing is the willingness to act. For years, the defining story of Berkshire\u2019s balance sheet was what the company wasn\u2019t buying; under Abel, the question increasingly may be what it buys next.<\/p>\n
Abel isn\u2019t expected to replicate Buffett\u2019s approach exactly \u2014 Berkshire today is larger, its operating businesses more extensive, and its investment needs different from the company Buffett built decades ago. His task is allocating hundreds of billions of dollars while preserving the discipline that made Berkshire successful. The first seven months of 2026 offer an early answer: Berkshire has bought tens of billions of dollars in stocks, acquired businesses, sharply increased share repurchases and reduced its record cash position \u2014 while still holding roughly $365 billion in reserve.<\/p>\n