Berkshire’s Record $397.4B Cash; Abel Keeps Anti-Bitcoin Stance

Berkshire Hathaway’s cash and Treasury bill holdings rose to $397.4 billion in the first quarter of 2026, the company reported Saturday. The quarterly filing shows no purchases of Bitcoin, spot-Bitcoin ETFs or other digital assets during the period.

Operating earnings for the quarter increased 18% to $11.35 billion. Insurance underwriting profit climbed 28.5% to $1.72 billion, and net income more than doubled to $10.1 billion compared with the prior-year period.

The cash and T-bill balance exceeded the prior record of $381.6 billion set in the third quarter of 2025. Berkshire was a net seller of equities in the quarter, disposing of $24.1 billion of stock while investing $16 billion. Share repurchases totaled $235 million, the first material buyback in nearly two years.

None of the capital deployed or held was used to buy Bitcoin or other digital assets. Greg Abel, who succeeded Warren Buffett as CEO at the start of 2026, has largely avoided public comment on crypto. Berkshire’s capital-allocation choices in Q1 mirrored the long-running view expressed by Buffett.

Warren Buffett called Bitcoin “rat poison squared” at the 2018 annual meeting and in 2022 remarked he would not pay $25 for the entire global supply of the token. Buffett attended the Omaha shareholder meeting alongside Abel.

Spot-Bitcoin ETFs launched in 2024 and have drawn institutional inflows, and some public companies have added Bitcoin to corporate treasuries. Berkshire’s report shows the company kept funds in cash and short-term government securities for the quarter and continued selling equities while making a modest buyback.