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Berkshire Hathaway’s huge cash pile has investors wondering what he’ll buy and when

When Warren Buffett hosts “Woodstock for Capitalists” 11 days from now, he’ll have replaced one pesky question with another.

Berkshire Hathaway BRK.B -2.18%decrease; red down pointing triangle is sitting on more cash than any company in history, including its own, at about $318 billion. Much of it piled up the old-fashioned way, in a steady stream from the conglomerate’s subsidiaries and investments. That got turbocharged last year when Berkshire sold a large chunk of its stock portfolio—notably shares of Apple AAPL -1.94%decrease; red down pointing triangle.

The gigantic bet dating to 2016 had made some investors nervous. Now that the iPhone maker has lost $1 trillion, or a quarter of its value, since its December peak, Buffett looks prescient.

But is his massive cash-hoard part of a grand plan to swoop in and buy stocks cheaply now that a possible bear market looms? And does Buffett anticipate tariff-induced chaos getting so bad that Berkshire can earn another bonanza bailing out blue chip companies, as he did during the financial crisis?

First it helps to understand why he probably sold. Berkshire’s large Apple stake, which it began building in 2016 to some investors’ discomfort, had become massive—probably the most lucrative single-stock investment of all time. Berkshire’s paper gains when it began selling were around $110 billion.

It wasn’t the first time Buffett’s investors second-guessed his bet on what already seemed like a fully priced stock. Between 1988 and 1994, Berkshire made what was then its largest ever portfolio investment in Coca-Cola KO -0.32%decrease; red down pointing triangle. By 1998 it had appreciated tenfold, trading at 45 times earnings. Buffett said years later that he regretted not lightening his position.

“It was a really wonderful business that sold at a very silly price.”

He heaped similar praise on Apple and its chief executive, Tim Cook, but the Coke experience probably influenced his thinking.

“I would be surprised if it didn’t come to mind for him,” says Adam J. Mead, a New Hampshire money manager and Buffetologist who is the author of “The Complete Financial History of Berkshire Hathaway.”

With markets wobbling and a recession possible, Berkshire’s cash pile has reassured its investors, helping it beat the S&P 500 by nearly 25 percentage points this year. When and how will it be invested? That is complicated.

“His opportunity set is pretty small,” says investing newsletter writer Alex Morris, author of “Buffett And Munger Unscripted.” With the conglomerate’s market value over $1 trillion, it takes a lot to move the needle.

Back in 2009 Berkshire made its largest-ever acquisition, agreeing to pay $26 billion for Burlington Northern Santa Fe, then America’s largest railroad by revenue. Today that would be less than a tenth of his cash hoard and just 2.5% of Berkshire’s value.

Two possibilities Morris raises: Buying the remainder of longtime holdings Coca-Cola or American Express AXP -3.50%decrease; red down pointing triangle and taking them private, which would run around $280 billion or $130 billion, respectively.

What about the sort of lucrative lifelines Berkshire extended to blue chips Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Dow Chemical during the financial crisis, should similar opportunities arise?

“They’d have to be significantly larger to make a dent,” says Morris.

One troubling interpretation of his cash hoard is that Buffett knows something about the tariff-hit economy we don’t. That is almost certainly true.

“He’s getting real-time information” through companies in his wide-ranging conglomerate, says Mead.

But it doesn’t necessarily mean he sees disaster ahead. It only tells us that the handful of securities it is worth his while to snap up—including Berkshire Hathaway stock—just aren’t priced right. And, with his Treasury bills at least yielding something now, he is getting paid to wait.

Buffett knew when to sell this time. Deciding when, and what, to buy has become much harder.

Majority of 1,500 executives polled back a long-term move away from fossil fuels

More than half of nearly 1,500 business leaders of medium and large companies plan to relocate their operations within five years to better access renewable sources, a survey carried out across 15 countries has found, and almost all of them backed a long-term shift away from fossil fuels.

The findings were based on interviews with about 100 C-suite executives from each of the countries since Donald Trump was voted back into the White House, which has triggered concerns about companies backing away from their commitments to a green transition. The countries included the US, UK, Germany, Brazil and India.

Liz Minné, director and head of global sustainability at Interface, the US flooring company, said the polling showed that “global businesses understand the urgent need to shift from fossil fuels to renewables.” 

While participation in the survey was anonymous, Iberdrola, Natura and Schneider Electric were among those to lend their backing to the findings.

“A rapid shift from fossil fuels to renewable power and electrification makes strong business sense and ensures energy security and resilience,” said Iberdrola’s global director of climate change and alliances, Gonzalo Sáenz de Miera.

More than three-quarters of businesses surveyed supported a shift to a renewables-based electricity system by 2035 or sooner, according to the poll, which was carried out between December and February.

A similar number said they associated renewables with stronger energy security, while the majority wanted to bypass gas supplies in a shift away from coal, to instead move straight to renewables and electricity storage systems.

Some 52 per cent of those polled said they would move their operations and 49 per cent would shift supply chains to better access to renewables-based power systems within five years, if their home market lacked green energy. This figure jumped to 89 per cent of senior executives within ten years. 

“If enacted, such measures could have huge ramifications for countries’ international competitiveness and domestic revenues,” the research said.

Additionally, according to the poll, nine out of ten said access to renewables-based electricity was a “top priority” when weighing up potential destinations for new investment.

More than 80 per cent said that the issue also influenced where they would opt to locate their business operations and which countries they turned to for the procurement of goods and services.

As many as 93 per cent of those polled said they were considering investing in their own on-site renewable facilities.

The results showed that despite the political and economic uncertainty, the executives “strongly support a rapid transition to renewable power”, said Nick Mabey, chief executive of E3G, a green think-tank that commissioned the research alongside climate-focused groups Beyond Fossil Fuels and We Mean Business Coalition.

The research said the while US policy emphasised fossil fuel expansion, 97 per cent of the American executives polled wanted to see the government expand renewable electricity in the grid.

Since taking office in January, Trump has launched a sweeping attack on climate policies in the US, while his threatened tariffs have sparked fears of a global trade war that could push the cost of the energy transition higher. Last week, his administration issued an order to stop the construction of a major offshore wind project in New York.

There are also concerns of green backtracking in Europe, as the continent rushes to pay for re-arming following Trump’s threats to leave Nato.

But 78 per cent of German business leaders in the survey said an accelerated renewable transition would reduce the country’s exposure to volatile energy imports. 

In the UK, 55 per cent of executives said renewables would help drive economic growth, but flagged concerns about the high upfront costs with shift to renewable energy as a barrier to the transition.

In India, 84 per cent of executives backed a shift from fossil fuels to renewables-based electricity generation within the next decade, despite the country’s heavy reliance on coal power.

Overall, at least three-quarters of respondents linked renewables to economic growth and crucial to job creation. 

ChatGPT search, OpenAI’s feature within ChatGPT that allows the chatbot to access and incorporate up-to-date information from the web into its responses, is growing at a fast clip in Europe.

A report filed by one of OpenAI’s EU corporate divisions, OpenAI Ireland Limited, reveals ChatGPT search had roughly 41.3 million average monthly active “recipients” for the six-month period ending March 31. That’s up from approximately 11.2 million average monthly active recipients in the six-month period ending October 31, 2024.

OpenAI regularly publishes information on ChatGPT search to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which regulates many aspects of online services in European nations. The DSA defines monthly active recipients as “[people] actually engaging with the service at least once in a given period of time” by “being exposed to information disseminated on the online interface of the online platform, such as viewing it or listening to it, or by providing information.”

One component of the DSA instructs “very large” online platforms or search engines — those with over 45 million average monthly recipients — to allow users to opt out of recommendation systems and profiling, share certain data with researchers and authorities, and perform external auditing. ChatGPT search may soon be subject to these requirements, assuming the current growth trend holds.

Online platforms that don’t comply with the DSA’s rules could see fines of up to 6% of their global turnover. A platform continually refusing to comply could result in a temporary suspension in the EU.

ChatGPT Search has made inroads against incumbents like Google since debuting last year. According to a poll published in September, 8% of people said they’d choose ChatGPT over Google as their primary search engine. But Google remains far and away the dominant online search tool. By one estimate, it handles 373 times more searches than ChatGPT.

Researchers have found ChatGPT search and other AI-powered search engines to be less reliable than conventional search, depending on the query. According to one study, ChatGPT incorrectly identified 67% of searched-for articles. Another study surfaced accuracy problems related to ChatGPT’s treatment of news content, including content from publishers with which OpenAI has licensing agreements.

The pharma company said it would export more medicines from the U.S. than it imports once its new and expanded manufacturing becomes operational

Roche plans to invest $50 billion in the U.S. over the next five years, joining Swiss rival Novartis in expanding its footprint in the country amid President Trump’s tariff threats.

The Swiss pharma giant said Tuesday that the investment includes new research hubs and new and expanded manufacturing facilities in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and California. The company said the investment would create more than 12,000 new jobs, including nearly 6,500 in construction, as well as 1,000 at new and expanded facilities.

Roche said it would export more medicines from the U.S. than it imports once its new and expanded manufacturing becomes operational, while its diagnostics division currently already holds an surplus from the U.S.

The Basel-headquartered company plans to create a new manufacturing center to produce its weight-loss drugs, for which it will announce its location soon. It aims to create a new gene-therapy manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania, a new R&D center in Massachusetts and one for continuous glucose monitoring in Indiana. Its investments also entail expanded research and manufacturing capabilities at eight existing sites.

“Today’s announced investments underscore our long-standing commitment to research, development and manufacturing in the US,” Roche’s Chief Executive Thomas Schinecker said.

The announcement comes as the pharmaceutical industry braces for potential tariffs on drugs imported into the U.S. Medicines were so far exempted, as Trump said two weeks ago that major tariff on pharmaceuticals were coming “very shortly”.

Roche currently has 15 R&D centres and 13 manufacturing sites in the U.S., employing more than 25,000 staff on the continent.