For more than three years, Berkshire Hathaway did something that made Wall Street increasingly nervous: it sat on its hands. Quarter after quarter, Warren Buffett's conglomerate sold more stock than it bought, building a cash reserve so large it rivaled the GDP of a mid-sized European country. That streak has now ended.

Under new CEO Greg Abel, Berkshire became a net buyer of equities in Q2 2026 for the first time in more than three years, purchasing $23.5 billion in stocks while selling just $3.7 billion. The company also bought back $4.5 billion of its own shares during the quarter, a sharp increase from the $235 million it repurchased in Q1. The shift marks the most visible signal yet of how Abel intends to manage the conglomerate's capital differently from his predecessor, whose caution in recent years had drawn growing attention from analysts and shareholders alike.

Berkshire's cash balance declines

Berkshire ended Q1 2026 with $397.4 billion in cash and equivalents. By the end of Q2, that figure had fallen to roughly $365 billion. Even after the reduction, the remaining cash pile remains far larger than at any point in Berkshire's history prior to recent years, reflecting the scale of the company's insurance float and operating earnings.

Buybacks, which had been paused since 2024, resumed in March 2026. Repurchases continued after the quarter ended, with July alone accounting for more than $3.3 billion in additional buybacks. Historically, Berkshire's leadership has used buybacks to signal that they view the company's shares as trading below intrinsic value — a discipline Buffett long emphasized was the sole justification for repurchases.

Alphabet becomes a major holding

The largest individual purchase was a $10 billion increase in Berkshire's stake in Alphabet, Google's parent company. The position is now among Berkshire's largest holdings. The move into a dominant technology platform represents a significant allocation for a conglomerate whose portfolio has traditionally been weighted toward financials, consumer staples, and industrials.

Taken together, the Alphabet investment and the share repurchases account for roughly $14.5 billion of Berkshire's $23.5 billion in stock purchases.

Abel buys Berkshire shares

In early March, Abel invested his entire after-tax annual salary of $15 million into Berkshire shares. He has said he plans to repeat the purchase every year.

Abel made the investment as buybacks resumed, effectively buying alongside the company at the same time Berkshire began deploying more of its cash. The question investors and analysts will be watching in subsequent quarters is whether Q2 represents a sustained acceleration of capital deployment or a targeted response to specific market conditions.