Warren Buffett does not hand out personal endorsements of his money manager every day. That makes the line he delivered about Greg Abel, who formally became President and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway on January 1, 2026, worth pausing on. For shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-B | BRK-B Price Prediction), it is the strongest possible vote of confidence after the first leadership transition at the top of the company since 1965.
Skin in the Game
Buffett describes the relationship as a “perfect 10.” Abel has put real money behind that trust. In June 2022, he sold his 1% BHE stake for roughly $870 million and reinvested heavily in Berkshire Class A shares. Then in early 2026 he went a step further, plowing his entire $15.3 million after-tax salary back into Berkshire stock, a commitment he says he will repeat every year as CEO. SEC filings from March 4, 2026 confirm Abel personally acquired 21 Class A shares in a tight $725,210 to $733,300 price range. His net worth and shareholder outcomes are now firmly aligned.
The Great Portfolio Consolidation
The strategy under Abel is shifting sharply. His first full quarter at the helm produced one of the most sweeping portfolio overhauls in recent Berkshire history. Q1 2026 13F filings show the equity portfolio contracting from roughly $274 billion to approximately $263 billion, with the number of holdings dropping from around 40 to 29. Abel sold stakes in 16 companies outright, including positions in Visa, Mastercard, Amazon, UnitedHealth Group, and Domino’s Pizza, many of them holdings associated with former investment manager Todd Combs, who departed for JPMorgan at the end of 2025. Berkshire was a net seller by roughly $8.1 billion on the equity side. The portfolio’s top five names, Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, and Chevron, still represent about 68% of the book, underscoring that Abel is pruning the edges without dismantling the core.
Abel also completed Berkshire’s first major acquisition under his watch: a $9.7 billion deal to acquire OxyChem from Occidental Petroleum, signaling he is not content to simply hold cash indefinitely.
The $397 Billion “Cash Mountain”
Q1 2026 results filed May 7 confirmed operating earnings of $11.35 billion, up nearly 18% from $9.64 billion in the same quarter a year earlier. Insurance underwriting led the way, with profits rising about 28% to $1.72 billion. The real story, though, is the balance sheet. Berkshire’s cash position reached a record $397 billion by quarter’s end, up from $373 billion when 2025 closed. That war chest now equals more than a third of Berkshire’s $1.1 trillion market value.
In March 2026, Abel authorized $234 million in buybacks, the first repurchase activity in 21 months, triggered when the price-to-book ratio dipped to approximately 1.4. Abel confirmed the move publicly on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on March 5, noting that repurchases would continue as long as the stock trades below conservatively determined intrinsic value. By setting a high bar before pulling the trigger, Abel is signaling that Berkshire’s dry powder will not be rushed into an overextended market.
The AI Energy Pivot
Perhaps the most significant departure from the Buffett era is Abel’s deliberate move toward artificial intelligence infrastructure. During the May 2026 Annual Meeting, Abel identified Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE) as the primary beneficiary of the AI buildout. Data centers in the Midwest already account for nearly 10% of peak load, a figure expected to grow 50% by 2030. Abel’s stance is tougher than his predecessor’s on cost allocation: he is demanding that tech giants bear the full infrastructure costs for grid upgrades, protecting utility customers while positioning Berkshire as the backbone of the AI economy.
That posture took concrete form on June 1, 2026, when Alphabet announced an $80 billion equity capital raise and disclosed a concurrent $10 billion private placement with Berkshire. The investment comprised $5 billion in Alphabet Class A shares at $351.81 each and $5 billion in Class C shares at $348.20, adding to a position Berkshire has been building since Q3 2025. The deal pushed Berkshire’s total Alphabet stake to roughly $41 billion, making it the fourth-largest equity holding in the portfolio. For a conglomerate that long avoided pure technology bets, that commitment is a clear signal of where Abel sees durable long-term value.
Time Will Tell
Berkshire entered 2026 with BRK-B down sharply from its May 2025 highs, as the market repriced the firm for the post-Buffett reality. That early-year weakness has largely reversed: BRK-B finished the first week of July 2026 at approximately $508, recovering to roughly flat-to-slightly-positive on the year. The underlying businesses continue to deliver. Abel’s style is more granular, more willing to confront underperformers, and considerably more tech-forward than what investors experienced over the prior six decades. The fortress balance sheet is intact, the OxyChem deal is done, and the Alphabet investment is in place. Buffett’s quote is the endorsement; Abel’s first six months in charge are the evidence that the transition is underway in earnest.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct the reporting period from “Q2 2026” to “Q1 2026” (the quarter ended March 31, 2026), to revise the equity portfolio size from $327 billion to approximately $263 billion based on Q1 2026 13F filings, and to add Berkshire’s $10 billion private placement in Alphabet (June 2026), the $9.7 billion OxyChem acquisition, and current BRK-B share price context as of early July 2026.
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