US$380.2 billion. That was Berkshire Hathaway's cash and equivalents at the end of March, and new chief executive Greg Abel told shareholders in Omaha on May 1 that the conglomerate will be deliberate and patient in deploying it. Abel pledged to preserve Berkshire's decentralised, long-term operating model, to keep hunting for acquisitions or pieces of businesses, and to avoid breaking up the company. Investors were reminded that patience is an active choice, not idleness, as Berkshire waits for valuations that make buying attractive.

At Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholders meeting in Omaha on May 1, Greg Abel, 63, used his first major public forum as chief executive to make two clear promises: the group will stick with its decentralised way of running insurance, retail, energy and industrial units, and it will search for ways to deploy a record cash hoard while resisting short-term pressure.

A pledge to preserve Berkshire's model

Abel, who succeeded Warren Buffett as CEO four months before the meeting, told the gathering that he intends to avoid bureaucracy and to preserve the company’s long-standing approach of giving managers autonomy. He said he is constantly evaluating opportunities to add to Berkshire’s existing portfolio, whether that means buying whole public or private companies or acquiring parts of businesses, and he stressed the firm doesn't intend to be beholden to anyone. The message was aimed at reassuring shareholders who feared a change in culture after Buffett stepped down.

There was a symbolic nod to continuity. Abel staged a moment of ceremony by retiring jerseys bearing the names of Warren Buffett and the late Charlie Munger to the rafters. The gesture underlined the management’s desire to show continuity of culture even as leadership has changed.

A mountain of cash, and the case for patience

Berkshire’s cash position was at the centre of the meeting. The company’s cash and equivalents stood at US$380.2 billion at the end of March, a figure company spokespeople presented to underline the scale of the group’s dry powder. Other accounts at the meeting described that pile more loosely as nearly US$400 billion, a shorthand that captured how unusual such a balance is for a public company of Berkshire’s size.

Executives and Buffett framed the hoard as deliberate patience rather than inactivity. They emphasised that holding cash gives Berkshire flexibility to buy entire firms, stakes in public companies or pieces of businesses when prices become attractive. Abel and his team said they will keep evaluating opportunities and will act when valuations make sense.

They offered no firm timeline for a large acquisition, leaving future deployment dependent on market moves.

Mastheads

Warren Buffett, now in a senior chairman role, spoke from the sidelines and in interviews at the meeting about market behaviour. He warned that speculative, short-term trading has become pervasive. "I have never had people in a more gambling mood than now," he said, and he compared modern markets to "a church with a casino attached," criticising one-day options trading and prediction-style bets as gambling rather than investing. Buffett reiterated his long-standing preference for temperament and patience over trying to time or chase fads.

Shareholders at the meeting heard both reassurance and pressure. One account raised a performance gap, noting that since Buffett announced his step-down at the 2025 meeting, Berkshire’s shares had lagged the S&P 500 by 39 percentage points.

That figure was used to underline investor impatience and the need for management to redeploy capital effectively. Abel and others acknowledged the metric but returned the conversation to valuation discipline and the long horizon that has guided Berkshire through previous cycles.

Not every detail at the meeting was covered the same way across reports. One report, for example, said Buffett trimmed some major long-held positions before retiring, including significant sales of Apple and Bank of America shares and a move toward higher cash levels. That narrative, and explanations about valuation and tax reasoning for the sales, appeared only in that single account and was not corroborated elsewhere in the meeting coverage.

Attendees and company spokespeople repeatedly described the decision to hold cash as a strategic choice. The pile enables three broad paths: buying entire companies when sellers accept fair prices, taking stakes in public companies when opportunities arise, or purchasing parts of businesses that fit Berkshire’s portfolio. Until valuations line up with Berkshire’s standards, the company will keep money on the sidelines.

For many investors, patience won't be a comforting word when holdings have underperformed broad markets. But at Berkshire’s meeting, the leadership sought to reframe patience as a position of strength.

The cash gives Abel and his team optionality. It also places a premium on temperament and long-term thinking, a line of argument Buffett has used for decades to defend holding large sums in cash during frothy markets.

One practical takeaway from the meeting is simple and concrete. The company reported its cash and equivalents at US$380.2 billion as of the end of March, and management reiterated its openness to acquisitions without promising a timetable. For anyone watching Berkshire's capital allocation, those two facts matter more than platitudes.

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The concrete figures are straightforward. At the end of March Berkshire held US$380.2 billion in cash and equivalents, and at the May 1 shareholders meeting Greg Abel reiterated that the company will wait for the right valuations before deploying it.

This article was created with AI assistance.