Buffett is holding a record $382 billion in cash - what's next?

In a market obsessed with daily CPI chatter, Fed odds recalibrated by the second, and AI-fueled equity enthusiasm, Berkshire Hathaway just posted another reminder that the slow game still works. 

The Q3 2025 earnings report, released November 1, showed operating earnings rising strongly again, supported by robust insurance underwriting and record investment income. Net earnings attributable to shareholders were approximately US$30 billion, up from approximately US$26 billion a year earlier. 

But what captured the market’s imagination wasn’t just the profit jump; it was Berkshire’s fortress-size cash balance. 

According to the latest filing and media estimates, the cash, cash equivalents and U.S. Treasury-bill holdings surged to ~US$381.7 billion, the largest corporate war-chest in U.S. history. 

This reserve continues to build in a marketplace where high-quality deal opportunities are becoming increasingly scarce. 

For investors, the temptation is to ask - is Buffett sitting idle? The answer is hardly. 

The message is strategic restraint in a world where asset prices look stretched, risk premia remain thin, and cheap capital is no longer the oxygen of the market. 

If 2020–22 rewarded speed and growth narratives, Berkshire’s latest report signals a return to discipline, patience, and balance-sheet strength, a strategy honed long before AI drove index concentration to new extremes. The Oracle hasn’t changed. The world around him has.

Q3 2025: Earnings strength, insurance tailwinds, and cash earning real returns

Berkshire’s third-quarter results once again showcased the power of diversified earnings and scale. 

Operating earnings rose to ~US$13.5 billion from ~US$10.1 billion, supported by standout insurance performance. GEICO’s underwriting profit surged, catastrophe losses were light, and underwriting expenses fell.

With three-month Treasuries yielding in the 4-5% range for much of 2025, Berkshire’s liquidity isn’t a drag; it’s a profit engine. Fixed-income income now rivals the earnings yield of many listed companies.

A market once convinced “cash is dead” is learning the opposite: cash earns, and it waits.

No buybacks and a rare underperformance

One notable absence: Buybacks. Buffett refrained from repurchasing Berkshire shares for the fifth straight quarter, a meaningful signal in itself. Berkshire stock has risen roughly 5% year-to-date, lagging the S&P 500’s ~16% gain over the same period.

With shares trading near record levels and valuation no longer obviously discounted, Berkshire appears content to let capital build rather than force activity for the sake of optics. Buybacks, like acquisitions, are only pursued when Buffett sees clear value, and right now, patience is doing more work than price action.

A net seller for the 12th straight quarter

Berkshire was a net seller of equities again in Q3, marking the 12th consecutive quarter of net selling. Stock sales exceeded purchases by roughly US$6 billion in the quarter, bringing cumulative net sales to around US$183 billion over the period.

This isn’t caution, it’s curation. Buffett is pruning where valuations have run, reserving firepower for moments when markets present genuine bargains.

Energy: Buffet's under-the-radar conviction trade

While global capital is crowding into AI infrastructure plays, Berkshire has been quietly building one of the most strategic energy portfolios in the world.

• Chevron (NYSE: CVX) remains a flagship holding, with Berkshire now owning roughly 122 million shares (~US$17.5B) as of mid-2025. 
• Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) has become another anchor. Berkshire’s stake now exceeds 20%, and climbed toward ~28% in early 2025 with fresh purchases.

Through Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Buffett also owns utility and infrastructure assets spanning electricity, natural gas and renewables. This is not nostalgia; it’s a hedge on industrial policy, supply security and real-asset pricing power.

In a world electrifying faster than energy supply is scaling, Buffett is betting that energy is the foundation beneath the AI revolution.

The Occidental Play: Buffett’s final major swing?

Berkshire’s growing Occidental stake, historically backed by a US$10B financing commitment, increasingly looks like Buffett’s final major industrial bet.

With approval to increase its stake to 50%, Berkshire is positioning itself with near-economic control, without a formal takeover. 

If completed, it would cement Berkshire as a cornerstone of U.S. strategic energy policy, a generational move, not a trade.

What the 13Fs say: selective, patient, relentless

Across the last four 13F filings, a consistent pattern emerges: Berkshire has been steadily raising cash while tightening portfolio quality. 

Over this period, it was a net seller of ~US$45 billion, exiting and trimming more than it added, not out of caution, but conviction in waiting for price.

Rather than chase momentum or crowd into AI trades, Berkshire has leaned into defensive compounding themes: healthcare, branded consumer staples, industrials, and energy; while taking profits in big tech and major banks where valuations have stretched.

Where Berkshire added

• Healthcare: UnitedHealth
• Consumer brands: Constellation Brands, Domino’s
• Aerospace/industrials: Heico, Allegion
• Housing/industrials: Lennar, D.R. Horton, Nucor
• Energy: Chevron; continued accumulation of Occidental (covered separately)

Where Berkshire trimmed or exited

• Tech: Apple (multiple quarters)
• Banks: Bank of America, Citigroup
• Telecom/media: Charter, T-Mobile
• Other: Floor & Decor, Liberty Media stakes, select financial holdings

Net positioning across the last four quarters

Buffett isn't chasing markets - he’s concentrating capital in resilient, cash-rich businesses and allowing liquidity to build for moments when the market finally delivers a fat pitch.

In Buffett’s world, doing nothing is often doing something, and the 13Fs show it: he’s stacking optionality.

A decade of Berkshire’s DNA: Moats, cash flow, and big tech

Over the past decade, Berkshire’s portfolio has evolved, quietly but deliberately, while staying anchored to its core discipline: buy durable cash-flow engines and let time do the compounding.

Berkshire’s portfolio over the past ten years tells a story of disciplined evolution. Long-time anchors like Apple (NYSE: AAPL), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), Moody’s (NYSE: MCO), American Express (NYSE: AXP), and energy holdings have remained core pillars.

The Apple stake in particular reshaped Buffett’s modern legacy, a moat-rich platform business with recurring revenue, pricing power and network effects. It disproved the narrative that Buffett “missed tech.”

He simply waited for tech to mature into the kind of business he could own forever.

Over the last decade, Berkshire moved gradually toward:

• Higher exposure to platform tech and digital infrastructure
• Consistent positions in financials benefiting from scale and regulation
• Select energy and industrial exposure, including regulated utilities and rails
• Opportunistic allocations to Japan’s trading houses — a nod to global value pockets

The lesson is evolution, not revolution. Buffett didn’t “go tech”; tech matured into a business model he could own forever.

Why it matters

Berkshire’s report reiterates timeless investing truths:

• Cash is optionality, not complacency
• Yield matters again
• Quality > fashion
• The best trades are sometimes the ones you don’t make

Buffett’s strategy hasn’t aged out - markets simply forgot what patience looks like.

And with nearly US$400 billion in dry powder, Berkshire isn’t waiting for the next cycle.
It’s preparing to own it when it arrives.