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Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B)’s Cash Pile Just Shrank for the First Time in Years. Is Greg Abel Finally Spending?

Warren Buffett spent decades building Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B)’s famous cash pile, and his successor Greg Abel, who took over as CEO in January 2026, is now the one deciding how to spend it.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B)’s cash and Treasury bill holdings fell to $364.7 billion on June 30, 2026, down 4% from three months earlier and the first sequential decline in more than three years. Net income more than doubled to $25.67 billion.

That raises the real question: does this quarter mark a genuine shift in strategy, or just a few opportunistic deals in an otherwise cautious approach?

Krista Kennell/Shutterstock.com

The Bull Case

Berkshire struck two of its biggest deals in years during the quarter, a $6.8 billion purchase of homebuilder Taylor Morrison and a $10 billion investment in Alphabet shares. It also repurchased $4.5 billion of its own stock and bought $23.5 billion of other equities while selling just $3.7 billion, making it a net buyer for the first time in more than three years. Operating earnings, which Buffett has said is the better measure of performance, rose 16.3% to $12.98 billion. Profit from Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B)’s manufacturing, service, and retail businesses jumped 24% to $4.47 billion.

UBS analyst Brian Meredith called the cash deployment “meaningful” and rates the stock a buy. Shares rose as much as 3.3% on August 10, 2026, to their highest level since Buffett announced his departure in May 2025.

The Bear Case

Berkshire’s insurance business reported weaker underwriting earnings, dragged down by rising accident claims and advertising spending at Geico. Paul Lountzis, president of Lountzis Asset Management, said it is “very hard to want Greg to be making big deals” in a market this expensive. He noted that private markets look overheated and public markets “kind of silly, too.” Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Meyer Shields still rates Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) “underperform” despite calling the quarter “very solid” and pointed out macroeconomic uncertainty and pricing pressure in property and casualty insurance.

Insider Monkey’s Hedge Fund Data

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) was held by 126 hedge funds as of Q1 2026, down from 133. Apple, one of Berkshire’s largest equity holdings, was held by 170 hedge funds over the same period.

Conclusion

Greg Abel made big real investments this quarter, but with $364.7 billion still sitting in cash. So the bigger question of how aggressively he’ll spend Berkshire’s fortune remains unanswered.

READ NEXT: Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR) vs. BigBear.ai Holdings, Inc. (BBAI): Palantir’s “Otherworldly” Quarter Sends Shares Soaring 30% and Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) vs. Meta Platforms, Inc. (META): Two Different Bets Behind Big Tech’s $1 Trillion Lease Bill

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

The $250 Trillion AI Hype is Real. A few years from now, you’ll probably wish you’d bought this stock.

Dr. Inan Dogan

Dr. Ian Dogan

Co-Founder and Research Director at Insider Monkey

When Jeff Bezos said that one breakthrough technology would shape Amazon’s destiny, even Wall Street’s biggest analysts were caught off guard.

Fast forward a year and Amazon’s new CEO Andy Jassy described generative AI as a “once-in-a-lifetime” technology that is already being used across Amazon to reinvent customer experiences.

At the 8th Future Investment Initiative conference, Elon Musk predicted that by 2040 there would be at least 10 billion humanoid robots, with each priced between $20,000 and $25,000.

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  • 175 Teslas
  • 107 Amazons
  • 140 Metas
  • 84 Googles
  • 65 Microsofts
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  • Larry Ellison — through Oracle, is spending billions on Nvidia chips and partnering with Cohere to embed generative AI across Oracle’s cloud and apps.
  • Warren Buffett — not known for tech hype — says this breakthrough could have a ‘hugely beneficial social impact.

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Dr. Inan Dogan

Dr. Ian Dogan

Co-Founder and Research Director at Insider Monkey

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