Berkshire's cash now tops its stocks: $373bn vs $336bn
Berkshire Hathaway's cash, cash equivalents and short-term U.S. Treasury bills against the fair value of its stock holdings at the end of every quarter since 2013, from the balance sheets in its 10-Q and 10-K filings. Cash held by the railroad, utility and energy businesses is left out.
What does it show?
In 2013 Q1 Berkshire held $46.1bn in cash and bills against $97.2bn in stocks; in 2026 Q3 it held $373bn against $336bn, and cash and bills have exceeded stocks every quarter since 2024 Q3.
Methodology
Quarter-end balance-sheet figures from the XBRL data of each 10-Q and 10-K Berkshire Hathaway has filed for 2013 Q1 to 2026 Q3, each quarter read from its own report. Cash and Treasury bills is cash and cash equivalents (us-gaap:CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue) plus short-term investments in U.S. Treasury bills (Berkshire's own brka:USTreasuryBills), for the Insurance and Other businesses and, until 2017, the Finance and Financial Products segment later folded into them; the cash of Railroad, Utilities and Energy (BNSF and Berkshire Hathaway Energy) is left out. Until the end of 2016 Berkshire counted its bills inside cash equivalents, so the sum is one continuous measure; fixed-maturity bonds are not in it, and payables for bills bought but not yet settled are not netted. Stocks is equity securities at fair value on the consolidated balance sheet (us-gaap:EquitySecuritiesFvNi, and us-gaap:AvailableForSaleSecuritiesEquitySecurities before 2018). It includes foreign holdings such as the Japanese trading houses and excludes stakes accounted for by the equity method (Kraft Heinz, Occidental Petroleum's common), so it differs from the 13F portfolio. The segment figures are dimensional or Berkshire's own XBRL elements, which the SEC's companyfacts API does not carry, so they are read from each filing's XBRL. Cash and bills first exceeded stocks in 2024 Q3.