Berkshire Hathaway’s second quarter portfolio filing reveals a $17 billion expansion of its Alphabet stake, pushing the Google parent ahead of Coca-Cola and into the No. 3 spot among the company’s equity holdings.
According to the 13F filing submitted to the SEC after the closing bell, Berkshire now holds nearly 106 million Alphabet Class A and Class C shares, valued at approximately $36.6 billion. That puts the position roughly $1.5 billion above Coca-Cola’s $35.1 billion, though still far behind Apple’s $69.7 billion and American Express’s $51.9 billion.
The increase reflects a net addition of 48.1 million shares during the quarter. About 60 percent of those shares came from a $10 billion private placement announced in early June, with the remaining $7 billion purchased on the open market, according to the filing.
Delta Air Lines also attracted fresh capital. Berkshire enlarged its Delta position by 44 percent, or roughly $1.6 billion, bringing its stake to 57.3 million shares now worth $5.1 billion. Delta reentered Berkshire’s portfolio in the first quarter, marking a reversal from 2020, when Buffett sold the airline and three other carriers at a loss as the pandemic crushed travel demand.
Buffett’s skepticism toward airlines is long documented. In his 2007 letter to shareholders, he mused that a "farsighted capitalist had been present at Kitty Hawk, he would have done his successors a huge favor by shooting Orville down."
Elsewhere in the portfolio, Macy’s saw its stake jump 142 percent, though the small base meant only about $100 million in added value. Berkshire also boosted its investment in Lennar by around $280 million during the same stretch in which it announced a $6.8 acquisition of Taylor Morrison Home.
The trend of shrinking financial holdings continued. Berkshire cut its Ally Financial stake by 7 percent and its Capital One position by 58 percent. Bank of America was reduced by 5.9 percent, yet because of the holding’s size that trim erased about $1.7 billion in value, the largest dollar reduction of the quarter. Berkshire has now sold 53 percent of its BofA shares over eight consecutive quarters of selling.
Investors have also been evaluating the actions of Greg Abel, Buffett’s successor, particularly his management of Berkshire’s cash pile. Michael Burry, the investor famed for his housing market bet before the 2008 financial crisis, took to Substack on Sunday to voice his displeasure. Burry wrote that his "biggest fear" was that Abel would not have Buffett’s "patience for the fat pitch," and added, "I believe this fear has come true." He concluded, "I do not find Berkshire an attractive investment going forward."
Burry acknowledged that "not too much of the cash pile has been spent" and that the roughly $360 billion remaining is a substantial sum. But he expressed concern that Abel’s "first steps look to be more framing moves than investment moves." In the comments, Burry clarified that he is not recommending a short position on Berkshire.
Buffett’s famed approach, waiting for the ideal opportunity, was the subject of a 2007 New York Times interview. "What’s nice about investing is you don’t have to swing at pitches," Buffett said. "You can watch pitches come in one inch above or one inch below your navel, and you don’t have to swing. No umpire is going to call you out. You can wait for the pitch you want."
In an archived conversation, Buffett and Charlie Munger discussed their disdain for conventional money management. The exchange went as follows:
Charlie Munger: We have this simple, old-fashioned discipline, which Warren likens to Ted Williams waiting for a fat pitch.
I don’t know about Warren, but if you said to me, "Charlie, you can go into the business of managing money the way other people do, where you’re measured against indexes and you got consultants choosing consultants that are reviewing you to committees," I would just hate it. I would regard it as being put into shackles. And shackles where the very system was preventing me from delivering value. Warren, how would you feel about that—
Warren Buffett: Yeah, we wouldn’t—do it. We wouldn’t do it. We never did do it, as a matter of fact. And one of the, you know, the initial—when we formed the partnership on May 5th, 1956, I passed out to the seven limited partners something called the "ground rules." And, you know, I said, "Here’s what I can do and here’s what I can’t do. And here’s some things I don’t know whether I can do or not, maybe." It was fairly short. But the idea of setting out to do something that you know you can’t do, that can’t be—you know, that’s got to lead to problems. I mean, if somebody tells me I have to high jump seven feet, and we could even move that down to four feet now—(laughter)—you know, between now and sundown or I’ll be shot, you know, I will go out and buy a bulletproof vest. (Laughter)
Charlie Munger: Yeah, the general system for money management requires people to pretend that they can do something that they can’t do, and to pretend to like it when they really don’t. And I think that’s a terrible way to spend your life, but it’s very well paid. (Laughter)
Wall Street appeared to share some of Burry’s concerns. Both classes of Berkshire shares fell more than 3 percent this week after the company’s second quarter spending, even though it included the first significant buybacks in two years.
For perspective, Berkshire’s cash total as of June 30 was $365.5 billion, down 8 percent from March 31. Excluding rail cash and subtracting T-bills payable, the figure was $359.2 billion, down 3.8 percent. Berkshire repurchased $4.5 billion of its own shares in Q2 2026. The company’s market capitalization stood at $1,078,750,128,699 at the time of publication.
The complete breakdown of Berkshire’s public stock holdings is available through CNBC’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
