Berkshire Ends 14-Quarter Net Selling, Buys $20 Billion in Stocks in Q2 2026

Huoxing Finance reports that on August 8, Berkshire Hathaway released its Q2 2026 financial results. The most closely watched detail was the decline in cash reserves to $365.51 billion in the second quarter, down from approximately $397.4 billion in the first quarter. This marks the end of 14 consecutive quarters of net selling, and the first significant shift to net buying since Q4 2022. In the second quarter, Berkshire made net stock purchases of approximately $20 billion, including about $10 billion in a private placement of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to support investments such as its AI data centers. It also acquired homebuilder Taylor Morrison for approximately $6.8 billion in a full acquisition, not conducted via public markets. Additionally, Berkshire repurchased about $4.5 billion of its own shares. After accounting for these major items, approximately $3 billion in net public market equity purchases remains unexplained and will be disclosed in the upcoming 13F filing around August 14. Alphabet has now officially entered Berkshire’s top five holdings, joining American Express, Apple, Bank of America, and Coca-Cola. Together, these five major positions account for approximately 66% of Berkshire’s equity portfolio. Warren Buffett previously indicated that the prolonged period of net selling was primarily due to high market valuations and a lack of sufficiently attractive opportunities. This shift is viewed as a clear signal of more aggressive capital allocation under the new CEO, Greg Abel, signaling that Berkshire is transitioning from “patient waiting” to “taking action.”