Berkshire reports roughly $380 billion cash

Berkshire Hathaway’s latest quarterly filing shows why references to the company’s “cash pile” can understate what is actually on its balance sheet. As of March 31, 2026, Berkshire reported roughly $58.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents and about $339.3 billion in short-term U.S. Treasury bills, putting its immediately available liquidity near $398 billion, according to its first-quarter 10-Q and earnings release. That is the figure behind recent shorthand describing Berkshire as holding roughly $380 billion in cash. The distinction matters because most of the money is not idle bank cash, but short-dated government securities. ### Where does the roughly $380 billion figure come from? Berkshire Hathaway’s first-quarter filing breaks the number into two main buckets: cash and cash equivalents, and short-term U.S. Treasury bills. The company reported about $58.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents at March 31 and about $339.3 billion in Treasury bills, based on the quarter-end balance sheet and accompanying disclosures. The recent 24/7 Wall St. figure of roughly $380 billion appears to use a rounded version of those line items. Berkshire’s own filing supports a somewhat higher total, closer to $398 billion, because the Treasury-bill position alone was more than $339 billion at quarter-end. ### Is this all just cash sitting in a bank account? The March 31 filing shows it is not. Berkshire’s liquidity is dominated by short-term U.S. (berkshirehathaway.com) Treasury bills, which are highly liquid government securities rather than operating cash sitting uninvested in deposit accounts. That mix is consistent with how Berkshire has long managed excess funds from its insurance operations and other businesses. (berkshirehathaway.com) The company can keep the money readily available while earning short-term Treasury yields and preserving flexibility for acquisitions, stock purchases or support for subsidiaries if needed. That last point is an inference from Berkshire’s longstanding capital-allocation practice rather than a new statement in this filing. ### How large is Berkshire’s balance sheet overall? Berkshire Hathaway’s first-quarter balance sheet reported total assets of about $1.25 trillion and shareholders’ equity of about $727.3 billion at March 31, 2026. Those figures place the cash-and-Treasury-bill total at a very large share of the company’s overall financial resources. The same filing showed total debt of roughly $144 billion. (berkshirehathaway.com) Berkshire also reported total investments of about $1.004 trillion, a figure that includes its large holdings of equity securities as well as cash-equivalent and fixed-income positions carried on the balance sheet. ### Why are investors focused on this number now? Berkshire’s first-quarter earnings release was published on May 2, 2026, and the size of the liquidity pool has drawn renewed attention because it remains near record levels even after Warren Buffett handed the chief executive role to Greg Abel at the start of the year, according to CNBC’s coverage of the 2026 annual meeting. (berkshirehathaway.com) CNBC reported from the May 2 annual meeting that Buffett said the investing environment was “not ideal” and referred to “gambling” in markets. Berkshire’s filings themselves do not frame the cash position as a market call, but the size of the reserve has made it a focal point for investors looking for clues about how aggressively the company is deploying capital. (businesswire.com) ### What should readers watch next? Berkshire Hathaway filed its first-quarter 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2026, and that document is the primary source for the current liquidity figure. The next concrete update on the size and composition of Berkshire’s cash-and-Treasury-bill holdings will come with the company’s second-quarter 2026 earnings release and 10-Q filing. (berkshirehathaway.com) (cnbc.com)