Berkshire's net stock purchases in Q2 were approximately $20 billion, ending a 14-quarter net selling period, shifting from waiting to action

Berkshire Hathaway today released its Q2 2026 financial report, with the most market attention focused on the cash reserves dropping to $36.551 billion in the second quarter, down from about $39.74 billion in the first quarter. This marks the end of Berkshire's 14 consecutive quarters of net selling, turning into a significant net buying for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2022.

In the financial report, Berkshire's net stock purchases in the second quarter were nearly $20 billion, including about $10 billion in a private placement from Google's parent company Alphabet to support investments such as its AI data centers. Approximately $6.8 billion was spent to acquire homebuilder Taylor Morrison, which was a complete acquisition and not entirely a public market stock transaction. About $4.5 billion was used to repurchase its own shares. After deducting the above major items, there remains about $3 billion of "unexplained" net purchases of public market equities, with specific stocks to be disclosed in the 13F filing around August 14. Currently, Alphabet officially enters Berkshire's top five holdings, alongside American Express, Apple, Bank of America, and Coca-Cola, with the top five holdings accounting for about 66% of the stock portfolio.

Buffett previously stated that the long net selling period was mainly due to high market valuations, making it difficult to find sufficiently attractive opportunities. This shift is seen as a clear signal of more aggressive capital allocation under Abel's leadership as CEO, with Berkshire moving from "patient waiting" to "starting to act."