Berkshire Hathaway Builds $17 Billion Alphabet Stake as Cash Reserves Edge Lower

Berkshire Hathaway executed a major expansion into big tech during the second quarter, building a $17 billion addition to its equity position in Google parent company Alphabet and establishing the search leader as the third-largest holding in its public stock portfolio. According to a second-quarter portfolio filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on August 14 for the period ending June 30, 2026, the Omaha-based conglomerate now controls almost 106 million shares across Alphabet's Class A and Class C equity classes, carrying a total market valuation of approximately $36.6 billion.

The massive capital deployment elevates Alphabet above longtime Berkshire core holding Coca-Cola, which currently sits at a $35.1 billion valuation within the portfolio. Alphabet now trails only Apple, valued at $69.7 billion, and American Express, valued at $51.9 billion, among Berkshire's largest equity bets. As first reported by CNBC Business, Berkshire accumulated 48.1 million Alphabet shares throughout the three-month period. Roughly 60 percent of those shares were purchased directly from Alphabet as part of a $10 billion private placement sale announced by both corporations in early June 2026, while the remaining balance of approximately $7 billion was acquired through open-market transactions.

Though Alphabet represented Berkshire's single largest asset addition of the second quarter by a considerable margin, the investment firm also selectively expanded positions across aviation, retail, and residential homebuilding. Berkshire increased its stake in Delta Air Lines by 44 percent, deploying roughly $1.6 billion to grow its overall position to 57.3 million shares valued at $5.1 billion. Berkshire initially returned to Delta during the first quarter of 2026 after Chief Executive Warren Buffett sold off the carrier alongside three other major airline stocks at a loss in early 2020 amid severe travel disruptions during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Buffett's historically fraught relationship with airline investments famously led him to comment in his 2007 annual letter to shareholders that if a farsighted capitalist had been present at Kitty Hawk, he would have done successors a favor by shooting Orville Wright down.

In other portfolio additions disclosed in the quarterly filing, Berkshire expanded its position in department store chain Macy's by 142 percent. Because of the relatively small base size of the original holding, the triple-digit percentage surge accounted for an increase of roughly $100 million. The conglomerate also directed approximately $280 million toward homebuilder Lennar. That stake increase occurred during the same quarter that Berkshire announced its $6.8 billion acquisition of homebuilder Taylor Morrison Home.

Conversely, Berkshire maintained its recent strategy of selling down its exposure to the financial services sector. The firm trimmed its holding in Ally Financial by 7 percent and drastically reduced its stake in Capital One by 58 percent. Berkshire also scaled back its Bank of America position by a modest 5.9 percent. However, given the vast size of that holding, the reduction sliced approximately $1.7 billion off the value of the stake, marking the largest overall dollar cut across Berkshire's portfolio for the quarter. The sale marks eight consecutive quarters of divestment from Bank of America, bringing Berkshire's cumulative reduction in the bank to 53 percent.

The quarterly buying and selling reduced Berkshire's total cash balance to $365.5 billion as of June 30, marking an 8.0 percent decline from the $397.1 billion reported at the end of March. When excluding cash associated with its railroad operations and subtracting short-term Treasury bills payable, Berkshire's net cash reserves stood at $359.2 billion, down 3.8 percent from the preceding quarter. The period's capital deployment also included Berkshire's first notable share buybacks in two years, though both Class A and Class C shares dropped by more than 3 percent over the week following the release of the quarterly spending details.

The capital allocation choices made under Berkshire Chief Executive Officer Greg Abel prompted public critique from hedge fund manager Michael Burry, whose pre-2008 subprime mortgage bets were highlighted in Michael Lewis's 2010 book "The Big Short" and its 2015 feature film adaptation. In a Substack post published on Sunday, Burry expressed concern that Abel lacks Warren Buffett's legendary patience to wait for a "fat pitch"—a concept derived from baseball star Ted Williams that Buffett and the late Charlie Munger frequently cited to describe waiting for exceptionally favorable investment opportunities without pressure from benchmark tracking. Burry stated that Abel's initial moves appeared more like framing maneuvers than genuine value investments, leading him to conclude that Berkshire is no longer an attractive investment going forward, though he noted in comment replies that he was not advising market participants to short the stock.