$20 Billion Bet: Berkshire Hathaway's Surprising Shift to Aggressive Stock Buying

Greg Abel, Warren Buffett's successor at Berkshire Hathaway, has put $20 billion to work in the stock market after nearly three years of selling stocks. In the second quarter of this year, Berkshire bought approximately $23.5 billion in shares while selling only $3.7 billion, resulting in a net purchase of almost $20 billion.

This marks the end of a 14-quarter streak of net equity sales for the company, its longest since late 2022. The change in strategy is significant, especially considering Buffett had built up a large cash reserve of over $360 billion, which he said he couldn't justify spending due to market conditions.

Abel's first major move as CEO involved adding around $17 billion to Berkshire's stake in Alphabet, Google's parent company. This brings their position in Alphabet to about $36.6 billion, making it the third-largest holding for the company behind only Apple and American Express.