Berkshire Hathaway holds more cash than Big Tech
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Wall Street likes to obsess over how much cash Big Tech has on hand, but Berkshire Hathaway dwarfs them all. The company has more cash on its balance sheet than the top three technology firms combined.
Why it matters: Incoming CEO Greg Abel will have serious Monopoly money to deploy when he takes the reins from Warren Buffett in 2026.
The big picture: Berkshire hit a record $382 billion cash hoard in the third quarter.
- Big Tech is going the other way, taking on debt to fund the biggest capital spending cycle in decades, much of it tied to AI.
- The four biggest hyperscalers are set to spend half a trillion dollars on building out AI infrastructure this year alone.
What they're saying: Buffett, current Berkshire CEO, is "obviously put off by current market valuations," says Jonathan Owen, who manages an investment grade portfolio for Twenty Four Asset Management, which has $30 billion under management.
- At the same time, "there has been a fairly reasonable push back on the capex plans for AI," Owen notes.
State of play: Berkshire is not the only corporate behemoth sitting on a mountain of cash, but others are deploying that cash differently.
- Corporate buybacks, when companies purchase their own shares, hit a record high in the first half of the year.
- For the fifth consecutive quarter, Berkshire did not use cash to buy back any of its corporate shares. "If they're not buying back their shares, why should you?" analyst Cathy Seifert told Bloomberg News.
The bottom line: In a market obsessed with who spends the most money, Berkshire's real edge may be that it doesn't have to.
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to say Twenty Four Asset Management manages $30 billion in assets (not Jonathan Owen, who manages a $10 billion portfolio for the firm).
