Berkshire Hathaway broke a 14-quarter streak as a net seller of stocks in the second quarter, deploying billions of dollars in fresh capital under chief executive Greg Abel, including a big new bet on Alphabet.
The conglomerate reported that operating earnings climbed 16% in the quarter, with strength in its energy, railroad and manufacturing businesses offsetting weaker results from its insurance operations, according to CNBC. The company’s cash pile shrank to $365.5 billion, down from close to $400 billion at the end of March, as Abel put more of Berkshire’s reserves to work.
Net equity purchases and buybacks totaled roughly $24 billion for the quarter, a sharp reversal for a company that had been trimming its stock holdings for more than three years. About $10 billion of that went into Alphabet shares, added through a private placement in which Berkshire bought $5 billion of Class A stock at $351.81 a share and $5 billion of Class C stock at $348.20 a share, according to Fortune and the Motley Fool.
The purchase was part of a broader $80 billion stock sale by Alphabet to help fund its artificial intelligence infrastructure buildout. Berkshire’s total stake in Alphabet now stands at about $31.1 billion, making up more than 9% of its roughly $342 billion investment portfolio and placing the search giant among the conglomerate’s five largest holdings.
Berkshire also repurchased $4.5 billion of its own shares in the quarter, the highest quarterly buyback total in five years and a significant jump from the roughly $234 million it spent buying back stock in the first quarter of 2026.
Abel took over as chief executive after Warren Buffett stepped back from day-to-day leadership at the end of 2025, and the size of this quarter’s moves marks his most aggressive use of the company’s capital since taking the job. Berkshire shares touched an eight-month high earlier this month as investors welcomed signs that the company’s enormous cash pile was finally being put to work.
