Berkshire HathawayWide moat

BRK.B — overall economic moat

Investment snapshot
Wide moat→ Holding steadyConfidenceHighValuationFair
Strongest advantageFortress balance sheet & cheap float
Greatest threatPost-Buffett succession
Key metricOperating earnings & P/B
Verdict: A wide-moat fortress of float, culture and capital allocation — mature and mostly stable; under Abel the cash has started to move ($397B to $365B in a quarter), and succession is the one real question.
📈 BRK.B valuation, revenue & earnings — P/E, P/S, revenue, EPS →

Berkshire Hathaway makes money the way a small town does: everywhere, unglamorously, and all at once. About $371 billion of revenue flowed through four engines in 2025, and $385 billion over the twelve months to June 2026.12 Insurance — GEICO, General Re, the specialty carriers — collected $104.2 billion in 2025: $88.9 billion of premiums earned and $15.3 billion of investment income on the float those premiums create.3 The BNSF railroad hauls roughly $23 billion of freight billings; Berkshire Hathaway Energy's regulated utilities collect about $26 billion; and the sprawling manufacturing-service-retail collection — Precision Castparts to Dairy Queen, McLane's grocery distribution to Pilot's truck stops — booked about $214 billion, the biggest and least noticed engine of all.4

Revenue by engine, 2025Manufacturing, service & retailing — 58%Insurance — 28%Utilities & energy (BHE) — 7%Railroad (BNSF) — 6%Segment revenues, $B: 214.3 / 104.2 / 26.3 / 23.5; Form 10-K FY2025
The sprawl books most of the revenue; insurance, the railroad and the utilities earn most of the profit.

Two numbers translate the sprawl into economics. Operating earnings — the conglomerate's true profit, stripped of accounting noise — reached a record $47.4 billion in 2024, $44.5 billion in 2025 and $24.3 billion in the first half of 2026, up 17%.5678 And the insurance float — $177.5 billion of policyholders' money at the end of June 2026, held between premium and claim — funds the investment portfolio at negative cost, the structural advantage everything else compounds on.9 The famous GAAP net-income line swings wildly with unrealized stock marks and is best ignored; price-to-book, 1.44 times in September 2026, is the gauge shareholders actually watch.10

What the model deliberately lacks is a center of gravity: no product to be disrupted, no customer worth more than a percent or two, no technology bet that can sink it. Cash from every subsidiary flows to Omaha and gets allocated — to whole companies, to stocks, to Treasury bills while waiting — by a head office of a few dozen people.

Whether the machine's advantages endure — the float, the allocation discipline, the fortress balance sheet, the reputation that wins deals no auction sees — is the moat question, taken up wall by wall in The Moat below. The risks live in the threats; the market's arguments in the insights; and the Abel era's opening moves — the deals, Japan, the cash, the AI-powered utility — under Future Bets. How the four engines divide the revenue and the profit is set out engine by engine in The Revenue Lines.

The number that tests this moat
Moat Explorer calc
Revenue, and where it comes from
$384.7B trailing twelve months to June 2026; insurance $104.2B, BNSF $23.5B, BHE $26.3B and manufacturing, service and retailing $214.3B in 2025

Four unrelated engines. The mix matters more than the total: a quarter of revenue from Pilot and McLane earns little, while insurance and BNSF earn most of the profit.

How it's calculated: FY2025 revenues 371,444 + H1 2026 195,483 - H1 2025 182,240 = 384,687; segment revenues from Note 26 of the FY2025 10-K.
Source: Berkshire Form 10-K, FY2025; Berkshire Form 10-Q, quarter ended 30 June 2026 ↗
Moat scorecardHow ratings work →
Switching costs6/10
Network effects4/10
Pricing power6/10
Hard to replicate8/10
Disruption resistance8/10
Overall durability9/10

A fortress balance sheet, cheap insurance float and an unrepeatable culture; the durability question is the post-Buffett transition.

Dig deeper
DIG DEEPER 01
The Revenue Lines
The biggest engine by revenue earns eight cents on the dollar; the float, the railroad and the utilities earn most of the profit.
DIG DEEPER 02
The Moat
Berkshire is a fortress of float, culture, and permanent capital — mostly stable, mature, and now running the one experiment it could never rehearse…
DIG DEEPER 03
Competitors
Nothing competes with Berkshire as a whole — competition happens one subsidiary at a time, and most of its disadvantages are disciplines it imposed on…
DIG DEEPER 04
Major Clients
Berkshire sells nothing; it has four counterparty relationships instead, and in the most important one the customer is choosing the buyer.
✦ Future bets — beyond today's moat
✦ FUTURE BET 01
The Future Bets
Berkshire's future bets are questions, not moonshots — and Abel's first year answered with $16 billion of checkbooks, five Japanese houses, and a…
⚠ Threats to the moat
⚠ THREAT 01
Life After the Founders
The culture, judgment, and reputation were built by two specific men — the test of whether they survive them is no longer hypothetical.
⚠ THREAT 02
The Curse of Size
At a trillion dollars, only elephants move the needle — and the bargains that built the record are too small to matter now.
◆ What the market may be missing
◆ THE VARIANT VIEW
What the Market Isn't Pricing In
Priced at 1.44 times book like a fading monument, built as a fortress with $365 billion of cash — an option on the next panic.
◆ THE VARIANT VIEW
Inside the Latest Quarter (Q2 2026)
Operating earnings up 16% and the first buybacks since 2024, while GEICO's underwriting profit nearly halved.
References
  1. ReportedAbout $371 billion of revenue flowed through four engines in 2025, and $385 billion over the twelve months to June 2026.
    Berkshire Hathaway Form 10-K, FY2025 - float $176 billion; after-tax earnings 2023-2025 (underwriting $7,258M, insurance investment income $12,513M, BNSF $5,476M, BHE $3,979M, manufacturing, service and retailing $13,647M in 2025; net earnings $66,968M incl. $30,737M investment gains and an $8,255M Kraft Heinz/Occidental impairment); revenues $371,444M; segment revenues (insurance $104,212M incl. premiums earned $88,902M and investment income $15,310M, BNSF $23,533M, BHE $26,297M, manufacturing $78,487M, service and retailing $42,647M, McLane $50,998M, Pilot $42,198M); pre-tax underwriting GEICO $6,824M, Primary $785M, Reinsurance $1,851M; GEICO combined ratio 84.7% (81.5%, 90.7%) and loss ratio 72.3%; capex $20,927M and D&A by segment; identifiable assets and goodwill by segment; 65% of equity fair value in five companies; equity securities $297.8B ($271.6B); BNSF volumes by business group; no share repurchases in 2025; no cash dividend since 1967; about 387,800 employees — FY2023-FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗
  2. Moat Explorer calcAbout $371 billion of revenue flowed through four engines in 2025, and $385 billion over the twelve months to June 2026.
    Moat Explorer calculation from Berkshire's Forms 10-K FY2016-FY2025 and 10-Qs for Q1 and Q2 2026: operating earnings = net earnings less after-tax investment gains and the 2025 impairments (FY2023 $37,350M, FY2024 $47,437M, FY2025 $44,486M; Q2 2026 $12,983M vs $11,160M; H1 2026 $24,329M vs $20,801M); consolidated cash and Treasury Bills $397.4B (31 March 2026) and $365.5B (30 June 2026); underwriting as a share of float; OxyChem at 2.6% of the cash pile; five-line after-tax earnings sums — 2016 to Q2 2026 · publ. 2026-09-23 · source ↗
  3. ReportedInsurance — GEICO, General Re, the specialty carriers — collected $104.2 billion in 2025: $88.9 billion of premiums earned and $15.3 billion of investment income on the float those premiums create.
    Berkshire Hathaway Form 10-K, FY2025 - float $176 billion; after-tax earnings 2023-2025 (underwriting $7,258M, insurance investment income $12,513M, BNSF $5,476M, BHE $3,979M, manufacturing, service and retailing $13,647M in 2025; net earnings $66,968M incl. $30,737M investment gains and an $8,255M Kraft Heinz/Occidental impairment); revenues $371,444M; segment revenues (insurance $104,212M incl. premiums earned $88,902M and investment income $15,310M, BNSF $23,533M, BHE $26,297M, manufacturing $78,487M, service and retailing $42,647M, McLane $50,998M, Pilot $42,198M); pre-tax underwriting GEICO $6,824M, Primary $785M, Reinsurance $1,851M; GEICO combined ratio 84.7% (81.5%, 90.7%) and loss ratio 72.3%; capex $20,927M and D&A by segment; identifiable assets and goodwill by segment; 65% of equity fair value in five companies; equity securities $297.8B ($271.6B); BNSF volumes by business group; no share repurchases in 2025; no cash dividend since 1967; about 387,800 employees — FY2023-FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗
  4. ReportedThe BNSF railroad hauls roughly $23 billion of freight billings; Berkshire Hathaway Energy's regulated utilities collect about $26 billion; and the sprawling manufacturing-service-retail collection — Precision Castparts to Dairy Queen, McLane's grocery distribution to Pilot's truck stops — booked about $214 billion, the biggest and least noticed engine of all.
    Berkshire Hathaway Form 10-K, FY2025 - float $176 billion; after-tax earnings 2023-2025 (underwriting $7,258M, insurance investment income $12,513M, BNSF $5,476M, BHE $3,979M, manufacturing, service and retailing $13,647M in 2025; net earnings $66,968M incl. $30,737M investment gains and an $8,255M Kraft Heinz/Occidental impairment); revenues $371,444M; segment revenues (insurance $104,212M incl. premiums earned $88,902M and investment income $15,310M, BNSF $23,533M, BHE $26,297M, manufacturing $78,487M, service and retailing $42,647M, McLane $50,998M, Pilot $42,198M); pre-tax underwriting GEICO $6,824M, Primary $785M, Reinsurance $1,851M; GEICO combined ratio 84.7% (81.5%, 90.7%) and loss ratio 72.3%; capex $20,927M and D&A by segment; identifiable assets and goodwill by segment; 65% of equity fair value in five companies; equity securities $297.8B ($271.6B); BNSF volumes by business group; no share repurchases in 2025; no cash dividend since 1967; about 387,800 employees — FY2023-FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗
  5. ReportedOperating earnings — the conglomerate's true profit, stripped of accounting noise — reached a record $47.4 billion in 2024, $44.5 billion in 2025 and $24.3 billion in the first half of 2026, up 17%.
    Berkshire Hathaway Form 10-K, FY2024 - float $171 billion (2024), $169 billion (2023) and $164 billion (2022); after-tax earnings by line 2022-2024 (insurance investment income $13,670M in 2024, net earnings $88,995M, investment gains $41,558M); $2.9 billion of share repurchases in 2024 and $9.2 billion in 2023; about 392,400 employees — FY2022-FY2024 · publ. February 2025 · source ↗
  6. ReportedOperating earnings — the conglomerate's true profit, stripped of accounting noise — reached a record $47.4 billion in 2024, $44.5 billion in 2025 and $24.3 billion in the first half of 2026, up 17%.
    Berkshire Hathaway Form 10-K, FY2025 - float $176 billion; after-tax earnings 2023-2025 (underwriting $7,258M, insurance investment income $12,513M, BNSF $5,476M, BHE $3,979M, manufacturing, service and retailing $13,647M in 2025; net earnings $66,968M incl. $30,737M investment gains and an $8,255M Kraft Heinz/Occidental impairment); revenues $371,444M; segment revenues (insurance $104,212M incl. premiums earned $88,902M and investment income $15,310M, BNSF $23,533M, BHE $26,297M, manufacturing $78,487M, service and retailing $42,647M, McLane $50,998M, Pilot $42,198M); pre-tax underwriting GEICO $6,824M, Primary $785M, Reinsurance $1,851M; GEICO combined ratio 84.7% (81.5%, 90.7%) and loss ratio 72.3%; capex $20,927M and D&A by segment; identifiable assets and goodwill by segment; 65% of equity fair value in five companies; equity securities $297.8B ($271.6B); BNSF volumes by business group; no share repurchases in 2025; no cash dividend since 1967; about 387,800 employees — FY2023-FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗
  7. ReportedOperating earnings — the conglomerate's true profit, stripped of accounting noise — reached a record $47.4 billion in 2024, $44.5 billion in 2025 and $24.3 billion in the first half of 2026, up 17%.
    Berkshire Hathaway Form 10-Q, quarter ended 30 June 2026 - after-tax earnings (underwriting $1,731M vs $1,992M, insurance investment income $3,059M vs $3,367M, BNSF $1,558M vs $1,466M, BHE $891M vs $702M, manufacturing, service and retailing $4,470M vs $3,601M, investment gains $12,684M, net earnings $25,667M); GEICO pre-tax underwriting $994M vs $1,821M, combined ratio 91.2% vs 83.5%; Reinsurance $913M vs $650M; float $177.5B; insurance and other cash and Treasury Bills net $359.2B; consolidated cash $35,096M + $324,905M + $5,513M; equity securities $323.8B; H1 purchases of equities $39.4B and sales $27.8B; acquisitions of businesses net of cash $9.7B; $4.8B of treasury stock acquired in H1, most in Q2; OxyChem about $9.4B on 2 January; Taylor Morrison agreed 31 May at $72.50 a share, about $6.8B, closed 24 July; notes payable of insurance and other $43.3B; shareholders' equity $747.9B; BNSF revenue $6,601M vs $5,769M, fuel $1,173M vs $698M; BHE revenue $6,735M vs $6,418M; investment income down 9.1% on lower interest rates — Q2 2026 · publ. August 2026 · source ↗
  8. Moat Explorer calcOperating earnings — the conglomerate's true profit, stripped of accounting noise — reached a record $47.4 billion in 2024, $44.5 billion in 2025 and $24.3 billion in the first half of 2026, up 17%.
    Moat Explorer calculation from Berkshire's Forms 10-K FY2016-FY2025 and 10-Qs for Q1 and Q2 2026: operating earnings = net earnings less after-tax investment gains and the 2025 impairments (FY2023 $37,350M, FY2024 $47,437M, FY2025 $44,486M; Q2 2026 $12,983M vs $11,160M; H1 2026 $24,329M vs $20,801M); consolidated cash and Treasury Bills $397.4B (31 March 2026) and $365.5B (30 June 2026); underwriting as a share of float; OxyChem at 2.6% of the cash pile; five-line after-tax earnings sums — 2016 to Q2 2026 · publ. 2026-09-23 · source ↗
  9. ReportedAnd the insurance float — $177.5 billion of policyholders' money at the end of June 2026, held between premium and claim — funds the investment portfolio at negative cost, the structural advantage everything else compounds on.
    Berkshire Hathaway Form 10-Q, quarter ended 30 June 2026 - after-tax earnings (underwriting $1,731M vs $1,992M, insurance investment income $3,059M vs $3,367M, BNSF $1,558M vs $1,466M, BHE $891M vs $702M, manufacturing, service and retailing $4,470M vs $3,601M, investment gains $12,684M, net earnings $25,667M); GEICO pre-tax underwriting $994M vs $1,821M, combined ratio 91.2% vs 83.5%; Reinsurance $913M vs $650M; float $177.5B; insurance and other cash and Treasury Bills net $359.2B; consolidated cash $35,096M + $324,905M + $5,513M; equity securities $323.8B; H1 purchases of equities $39.4B and sales $27.8B; acquisitions of businesses net of cash $9.7B; $4.8B of treasury stock acquired in H1, most in Q2; OxyChem about $9.4B on 2 January; Taylor Morrison agreed 31 May at $72.50 a share, about $6.8B, closed 24 July; notes payable of insurance and other $43.3B; shareholders' equity $747.9B; BNSF revenue $6,601M vs $5,769M, fuel $1,173M vs $698M; BHE revenue $6,735M vs $6,418M; investment income down 9.1% on lower interest rates — Q2 2026 · publ. August 2026 · source ↗
  10. Third-party estimateThe famous GAAP net-income line swings wildly with unrealized stock marks and is best ignored; price-to-book, 1.44 times in September 2026, is the gauge shareholders actually watch.
    Stock market data, September 2026 - Berkshire market capitalization $1.08T, price-to-book 1.44, price-to-earnings 12.57, price-to-sales 2.80 — September 2026 · publ. 2026-09-23 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 23, 2026