⚠ The Cash MountainModerate threat

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) — threat to the moat

A record $397 billion in March, $365 billion by June — patience to admirers, a shortage of ideas to skeptics.

Berkshire sits atop a mountain of cash — a record $397.4 billion of cash and Treasury bills at the end of March 2026, and still $365.5 billion in June123 — and while a fortress balance sheet is a genuine strength, a pile this size is also a problem in its own right. Cash earns a safe but modest return, well below what Berkshire's equities and operating businesses have historically compounded at, so every dollar held idle is a dollar not earning the returns that built the company. At this scale, the drag is measured in billions of forgone earnings a year.

Cash and T-bills, insurance and other, net, by quarter ($B)$354.3BSep 25$369.0BDec 25$373.5BMar 26$359.2BJun 26Net of payables for unsettled purchases; Berkshire Forms 10-Q and 10-K
The mountain stopped growing in the second quarter of 2026.

The deeper signal is what the mountain implies: it exists because Berkshire cannot find enough attractive places to put the money. The cash is not a strategy but a residue of discipline — the leftover of refusing to overpay — and it has grown for years because opportunities big and cheap enough have been scarce. Higher interest rates have softened the pain by letting the cash earn four or five percent, but that only makes idleness less costly, not productive.

The reassurance is that dry powder is enormously valuable in a crisis, when Berkshire can deploy it while others are forced to sell, and that buybacks offer a sensible outlet when the shares are cheap — Abel's $4.8 billion of repurchases in the first half of 2026, after none in 2025, suggests management feels the same pressure.45 But an owner should see the cash mountain honestly: it is both a war chest and an admission that a trillion-dollar Berkshire struggles to reinvest at the rates that made it great.

References
  1. ReportedBerkshire sits atop a mountain of cash — a record $397.4 billion of cash and Treasury bills at the end of March 2026, and still $365.5 billion in June — and while a fortress balance sheet is a genuine strength, a pile this size is also a problem in its own right.
    Berkshire Hathaway Form 10-Q, quarter ended 31 March 2026 - insurance and other cash and cash equivalents $51,478M and Treasury Bills $339,261M, railroad, utilities and energy cash $6,644M (consolidated $397.4B); insurance and other cash and Treasury Bills net of payables $373.5B; equity securities $288.0B; OxyChem acquired 2 January 2026 — Q1 2026 · publ. May 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedBerkshire sits atop a mountain of cash — a record $397.4 billion of cash and Treasury bills at the end of March 2026, and still $365.5 billion in June — and while a fortress balance sheet is a genuine strength, a pile this size is also a problem in its own right.
    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 ↗
  3. Moat Explorer calcBerkshire sits atop a mountain of cash — a record $397.4 billion of cash and Treasury bills at the end of March 2026, and still $365.5 billion in June — and while a fortress balance sheet is a genuine strength, a pile this size is also a problem in its own right.
    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 ↗
  4. ReportedThe reassurance is that dry powder is enormously valuable in a crisis, when Berkshire can deploy it while others are forced to sell, and that buybacks offer a sensible outlet when the shares are cheap — Abel's $4.8 billion of repurchases in the first half of 2026, after none in 2025, suggests management feels the same pressure.
    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 ↗
  5. ReportedThe reassurance is that dry powder is enormously valuable in a crisis, when Berkshire can deploy it while others are forced to sell, and that buybacks offer a sensible outlet when the shares are cheap — Abel's $4.8 billion of repurchases in the first half of 2026, after none in 2025, suggests management feels the same pressure.
    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 ↗
Sources
Generated September 23, 2026