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Berkshire Hathaway spent $23.5 billion on stocks last quarter. Only $10 billion of that is accounted for — the rest is anyone’s guess until August 14.
That’s when the conglomerate files its 13F disclosure with regulators, laying out every U.S. stock position it held as of June 30. The confirmed piece is a $10 billion stake in Alphabet. The other $13.5 billion? Nobody outside Berkshire knows yet. And that uncertainty has Wall Street buzzing harder than it has in years, mostly because of what the purchases might mean for where the company is headed under its new boss.
For the first time in 14 quarters, Berkshire flipped from net seller to net buyer. That’s a big deal. The company sold $3.7 billion in stock during the April-to-June period while buying $23.5 billion — a gap that basically screams conviction. Zoom out to the full first half of 2026 and the total equity purchases hit $39.4 billion. Something shifted.
Greg Abel Takes the Wheel
Chief Executive Greg Abel is running the show now on capital allocation, a job that used to belong to Warren Buffett. And he’s not being shy about it. Berkshire repurchased $4.5 billion of its own shares in the second quarter alone, up from a pretty modest $235 million in Q1. That’s not a gradual ramp-up — that’s a hard pivot. It probably means Abel thinks the stock is cheap, or at least cheap enough to justify pulling the trigger at that scale.
Operating earnings came in at $13 billion for the quarter, up 16%. The insurance float — basically the pool of premiums Berkshire collects before paying out claims — reached $177.5 billion. So the business itself is humming. The buybacks and investments aren’t coming from a position of desperation. They’re coming from a war chest that, even after everything, still sits at $365.5 billion in cash and Treasuries.
That number was $397.4 billion before. The drop is the first meaningful reduction in years, driven partly by the stock buys and partly by two major acquisitions: a $9.4 billion purchase of OxyChem and a $6.8 billion deal for Taylor Morrison. Both closed in 2026. Both chipped away at the pile that critics had spent years calling excessive.
Alphabet In, Chevron Out of Top Five
The Alphabet investment reshuffled Berkshire’s top holdings. Chevron, which had been a fixture near the top, dropped out of the top five. That’s not a trivial change. It’s a quiet but clear signal that the portfolio is tilting away from traditional energy and toward technology. Buffett had already endorsed Alphabet in earlier years, so Abel isn’t exactly breaking with the past — but the size of the bet and the timing say a lot about where he sees value right now.
The commercial and industrial equity category jumped by $21.1 billion. That’s the bucket where the mystery $13.5 billion probably lives, at least in part. Could be a single large position. Could be a handful of smaller ones. No details yet.
And Berkshire isn’t saying anything publicly about it. The company has stayed quiet, which is pretty standard practice when you’re trying to build a position without moving the market against yourself. Regulators sometimes grant confidential treatment for exactly that reason — letting big buyers accumulate shares before the position becomes public knowledge.
No Crypto, No Comment on Digital Assets
One thing that’s clear: Berkshire isn’t touching crypto. There’s no indication in any of its filings or public statements that digital assets are anywhere near the radar. The cash reserve, even at $365.5 billion, dwarfs the market cap of almost every cryptocurrency except Bitcoin. But Berkshire’s silence on the sector isn’t new — it’s been the company’s consistent posture for years, and nothing about the current spending spree seems to change that.
What the August 14 filing will do is answer the actual question everyone’s asking: who got the $13.5 billion? Tech? Industrials? A sector nobody’s guessing? Abel’s first full year running capital allocation has been aggressive by Berkshire standards, and the 13F will be the clearest window yet into how he thinks.
Operating earnings up 16%. Cash down for the first time in years. A new CEO making $4.5 billion buyback calls. The 13F drops August 14.
Frequently Asked Questions
What will Berkshire Hathaway’s August 14 13F filing reveal?
The 13F will disclose all U.S. stock holdings as of June 30, including the destination of the $13.5 billion in unidentified stock purchases made during the second quarter of 2026.
How much did Greg Abel spend on share buybacks in Q2 2026?
Abel oversaw $4.5 billion in Berkshire share repurchases during the second quarter, up sharply from $235 million in the first quarter.
