Warren Buffett Has $334 Billion in Cash and Treasury Bills: Here’s What Happens Next

We wrote about it repeatedly, as did most of the financial press. What we witnessed over the past few trading days confirms why Warren Buffett was accumulating cash. With the S&P 500 taking a beating, down 10% in just two short days, many on Wall Street are wondering when he will begin putting some of that cash to work.

Long-time investors and Buffett mavens are familiar with his quote, “His favorite holding for an S&P 500 stock is forever,” So it’s not surprising to report that, for all of the success and stature Berkshire Hathaway has in the investment world, seven top companies still make up almost 75% of the funds’ total holdings. Fortunately for Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) shareholders, the company remains up over 9% for 2025 despite the massive sell-off.

Berkshire Hathaway has a long history of beating the market. Over the past 20 years, Berkshire Hathaway delivered an average annual return of 12.1%, compared to the S&P 500’s 11.5%. It is essential to note that Berkshire Hathaway holds significant stakes in numerous well-known private companies, including Acme Brick, Benjamin Moore, Dairy Queen, Duracell, GEICO, and Lubrizol.

One can only surmise that Buffett is taking a long look at the devastation caused by the recent selling and starting to compile a list of potential names that could be added to Berkshire Hathaway, in addition to considering whether to increase any of the fund’s current positions. After reviewing the bloodied stock market, where in 2025, the S&P 500 is down 13.7%, the Dow Jones industrial average is off 9.9%, the Nasdaq Composite is 19.3% lower, and the Russell 2000 has retreated 18.1%, we concluded that four scenarios could play out for Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway.

1. Steady as she goes with no change in direction

Buffett may wait for proclamations from the White House and Donald Trump indicating that negotiations with major countries, which have the largest tariffs and the most significant impact on the U.S. economy, are improving and that some deals are being made to lower or eliminate current tariffs that U.S. companies are charged.

The U.S. president announced that Vietnam’s leader, To Lam, had agreed to discussions on reducing tariffs on the United States to zero, provided that an agreement could be reached between the two nations. More agreements like this with major trading partners, such as Canada, Mexico, China, and the European Union, could help extinguish the tariff fire that ignited the recent sell-off.

2. Add to current positions that are getting hit the hardest in Berkshire Hathaway

This is a very likely scenario, as Buffett has been known over the years to continue adding to stocks he is enamored with, almost regardless of how much Berkshire Hathaway ultimately holds. To illustrate this, the fund has a massive 21.5% of the outstanding shares of American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) and 27% of consumer staples giant Kraft Heinz Co. (NYSE: KHC).

Buffett may add to Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY), as the price of West Texas Intermediate plunged to its lowest levels in four years. The shares were mauled on Friday, down almost 8%, and printed a new 52-week low at just over $40 per share. Berkshire Hathaway currently owns a massive 264,941,431 shares of the oil giant, representing 28% of the company’s outstanding shares.

Another potential candidate to consider adding more shares of is Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ), which Buffett made one of his very few new purchases for the portfolio in 2024, acquiring 1.3 million shares of the company. He has since added 1 million shares, bringing the total held to 2,382,000, which is just shy of 7% of the total outstanding shares. The stock closed last Friday not far from a 52-week low.

3. Buffett adds new positions to Berkshire Hathaway

Buffett is a master at identifying large-cap and mega-cap stocks, many of which pay dependable, recurring dividends that are reinvested in the company’s cash pile, as Berkshire Hathaway does not distribute a dividend to shareholders. There is a reasonable chance that he has been scouring the S&P 500 looking for companies that fit the Berkshire Hathaway model. The fund has recently added Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE: STZ), which provides the fund with exposure to two of the most prominent alcohol and beer retailers in the world. Perhaps he would consider Molson Coors Inc. (NYSE: TAP), which has a strong position in the United States with Coors Light and pays a solid dividend.

Another stock Buffett may find to be a solid value at current levels is aerospace and defense giant Boeing Inc. (NYSE: BA). The stock has been plagued over the last few years with manufacturing issues, 737-Max plane crashes, some abysmal leadership in the executive suites, and other problems. Despite posting the most significant annual loss for the company since 2020 in the fourth quarter, on March 21, 2025, President Trump announced that Boeing had won a contract to build the Air Force’s next-generation fighter jet, the F-47, under the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, beating out Lockheed Martin. The F-47 is described as a sixth-generation fighter jet intended to replace the F-22 Raptor and usher in a new era of air dominance for the U.S. Air Force. The initial contract for the engineering and manufacturing development phase is estimated to be worth over $20 billion.

In addition, some faith has been restored in the legacy company as Robert “Kelly” Ortberg was named the new president and CEO of the company in August of last year. Ortberg was formerly CEO of defense giant Rockwell Collins, which later integrated into United Technologies. Many on Wall Street applauded this move, and it may help restore the kind of confidence Buffett needs to purchase shares.

4. The Oracle of Omaha resumes buying Berkshire Hathaway shares and nothing else

Buffett halted Berkshire Hathaway’s share repurchase program in the last half of 2024. That ended a 24-quarter streak of repurchases, as the company’s stock price reached record highs and Buffett’s cash holdings had jumped to record levels. A protracted sell-off of his self-proclaimed favorite company, Berkshire Hathaway, which declined a stunning 10% in April, could be the spark. If the shares can trade down to long-term support at $450 to $475, that could spur a restart of the company’s buyback program. Berkshire Hathaway has noted in the past that it will buy back stock when Buffett believes that the repurchase price is below Berkshire’s intrinsic value, as conservatively determined. A few more weeks of selling could bring that intrinsic value right back to Buffett’s purchasing wheelhouse.

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