Berkshire’s $358B War Chest Under Greg Abel: Where Will the New CEO Deploy the Cash?

Berkshire Hathaway's crown has passed. The Oracle of Omaha has stepped aside, and Greg Abel now commands one of history's largest corporate treasuries—a staggering $358 billion in cash and equivalents. The investment world holds its breath.

The Elephant Gun is Loaded

For years, that mountain of liquidity sat idle, a testament to Warren Buffett's legendary patience and his famous lament about the lack of "elephant-sized" opportunities. Now, it's Abel's problem—and his potential legacy-defining weapon. The question isn't if he'll deploy it, but where, when, and how aggressively.

Beyond Buybacks and Blue Chips

The playbook is well-worn: massive share repurchases, strategic acquisitions of durable moat businesses, or waiting for market panic to strike. But Abel's tenure invites speculation about a pivot. Will he break from tradition to chase growth in sectors Buffett famously avoided? Tech infrastructure? Renewable energy empires? The sheer scale of the cash pile means any move sends seismic waves through entire industries.

A $358B Test of Conviction

This isn't just a changing of the guard; it's a stress test for value investing itself. The market watches to see if Abel's discipline matches his predecessor's, or if the pressure to put capital to work erodes the foundational patience that built Berkshire. After all, in modern finance, sitting on cash is often viewed as a sin—right up until the moment it's hailed as genius.

The new era begins not with a bang, but with the quiet, immense weight of $358 billion waiting for its orders. The ultimate conservative's dilemma: preserve the fortress, or use it to conquer new kingdoms?

Berkshire’s cash position leaves few easy choices for Greg

Cryptopolitan reported earlier that the S&P 500 posted a 16% rally Y/Y in 2025, extending a 3-year streak that began in 2022, as companies in the index now trade at more than five times net assets, well above the 10-year average of 3.9 times.

Berkshire’s own Class B shares traded at a 1.6 price-to-book ratio, based on FactSet data. The numbers explain the silence. Prices stayed too high.

Warren called the cash pile an “enormous asset” at the 2025 annual meeting in May, but the man Google calls the greatest investor who ever lived also said this gives protection if markets fall.

In a statement to The Wall Street Journal, Warren said, “Greg has exceeded my expectations in every respect—and I hope he gets a 20-year run or more.”

Berkshire crossed a $1 trillion market value in 2024, something only one other non-tech U.S. company has done in history. The group now employs about 400,000 people, its businesses including BNSF Railway, Dairy Queen, Duracell, Fruit of the Loom, and Geico. The size makes deals harder, because buying small companies does nothing, and buying big ones costs time + patience.

Some of us think Greg will wait for a recession, while others think the cash stays untouched until prices crack.

Though a dividend remains unlikely, since you, know, Berkshire has only ever paid one dividend, and it was like 10 cents per share in 1967. Taxes still matter, folks.

Greg Abel’s personal life is so different from Warren’s, but he is largely trusted by insiders

Now let’s talk about Mr. Greg. He was born in the Canadian Prairies, and as a kid, he delivered ad flyers, collected bottles for cash, and filled fire extinguishers. Hockey filled his free time, and he still helps coach his son’s team to this day.

At the 2025 annual meeting, he told us that:- “If I had to be remembered as something right now, obviously I’d want to be remembered as a great father, but equally, a coach.”

He also said, “We will remain Berkshire. How Warren and the team have allocated capital for the past 60 years, it will not change.”

Greg joined Berkshire more than 20 years ago. The company bought 75% of MidAmerican Energy, based in Des Moines, where Greg was president. After the deal, he expanded the business across the central and western U.S. It was renamed Berkshire Hathaway Energy. Growth came through acquisitions and long-term investments in power assets.

In 2018, Greg took control of all noninsurance units. That included everything from candy brands to footwear to building materials. He stayed out of the spotlight. No TV ads. No cameos. No opinion columns. Shareholders never saw him try to play Warren on screen.

Mark Oman, a former Wells Fargo executive and longtime friend, described gatherings at Greg’s home in Des Moines with hockey families. He recalled a night watching Olympic curling. Greg joked, “Oh, I think I could probably coach you to be the best in Iowa.” Oman later said he thought, “That’s kind of a low bar.”

Greg’s name had appeared for years in Warren’s annual letters. Charlie Munger let the plan slip in 2021. As CEO-in-waiting, Greg joined Warren on stage at annual meetings filled with thousands of investors attending either physically or virtually from all over the world.

Warren believes that Greg should make capital calls on his own. At 2024’s shareholder meeting, he told us, “He [Greg] understands businesses extremely well. If you understand businesses, you understand common stocks.”

Berkshire Class B shares dropped about 7% after Warren said he was retiring. Some investors blamed the loss of the so-called Warren premium. The shareholder base remains global and heavy with regular people.

Warren still works from the Omaha office. He is nearby. The cash is there. Greg holds the checkbook.