Warren Buffett Investments: Holdings and Lasting Lessons

Brian Nichols is the co-founder of Angel Squad, an angel investing community where aspiring and active angels learn from Hustle Fund’s approach, review curated deal flow, and connect with peers.

Lists of Warren Buffett investments can mix Berkshire Hathaway’s stocks, its acquisitions, and Buffett’s own decisions. Those distinctions matter when you’re trying to understand what the company owns. A dated holdings snapshot gives you a firmer starting point for studying the investing principles behind the portfolio and their limits for startup investors.

Berkshire’s reported stock holdings at June 30, 2026

Berkshire Hathaway’s second-quarter 2026 filing, submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on August 14, covers holdings at June 30. Its Form 13F, a quarterly disclosure of specified securities, reported approximately $299.3 billion in holdings. These are quarter-end values, not live prices or Buffett’s personal portfolio.

The ten largest companies by reported value were the following. Values combine filing entries for the same company, including Alphabet’s two share classes. Percentages use the $299.3 billion 13F total as their denominator, with figures rounded from the SEC holdings disclosure.

1. Apple: $65.95 billion, or 22.04%.
2. American Express: $51.28 billion, or 17.14%.
3. Alphabet: $37.76 billion, or 12.62%.
4. Coca-Cola: $32.51 billion, or 10.86%.
5. Bank of America: $27.54 billion, or 9.20%.
6. Chevron: $13.99 billion, or 4.67%.
7. Occidental Petroleum: $12.87 billion, or 4.30%.
8. Chubb: $11.67 billion, or 3.90%.
9. Moody’s: $11.17 billion, or 3.73%.
10. Kraft Heinz: $7.69 billion, or 2.57%.

Apple was the largest disclosed position. The top five together represented about 71.9% of this 13F snapshot. That concentration describes one part of Berkshire’s assets. It doesn’t establish a sensible allocation for your own portfolio.

Buffett’s role has also changed. Berkshire named him chairman emeritus on September 18, 2026; he remains a director. Greg Abel is CEO. A trade reported by Berkshire should be attributed to the company unless a reliable source identifies the individual decision-maker.

What changed between March and June 2026

A position’s dollar value can rise because the stock price rose, even when the company bought no additional shares. Share counts help separate those two effects.

Comparing Berkshire’s March 31 holdings with its June 30 holdings shows several changes:

• Alphabet increased: Combined Class A and Class C shares rose from 57,835,013 to 105,979,600.
• Bank of America decreased: Shares fell from 513,624,165 to 483,394,015.
• New York Times increased: Shares rose from 15,146,535 to 15,700,000.
• Chubb stayed unchanged: Berkshire reported 34,249,183 shares at both quarter ends.

Chubb is a useful example of why market value alone can mislead. Its reported value increased while its share count stayed flat. An increase in market value alone isn’t evidence of accumulation.

These comparisons show net changes between reporting dates. They reveal neither every transaction during the quarter nor the reasons behind a trade. An increase alone doesn’t establish that Buffett personally became more bullish.

The investments a 13F snapshot leaves out

The SEC’s Form 13F guidance explains that the form covers specified securities, principally certain U.S. exchange-listed stocks. Cash, directly owned operating businesses, and most shares traded only on foreign exchanges sit outside that stock list. The reporting lag also means subsequent activity may be absent.

Berkshire’s broader holdings include several different kinds of assets:

• Cash and Treasury bills: At June 30, 2026, Berkshire’s insurance and other businesses held $359.2 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and U.S. Treasury bills, net of payables for unsettled purchases. The figure in its Q2 financial report combines all three categories.
• Overseas shares: Berkshire’s stakes in Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, and Sumitomo had a combined market value of approximately $35.4 billion at December 31, 2025, according to its 2025 annual report. That is a year-end historical value, separate from the June 2026 13F snapshot.
• Acquired businesses: Berkshire completed its OxyChem acquisition from Occidental on January 2, 2026, for approximately $9.4 billion in cash. The acquisition disclosure describes a business purchase, distinct from owning Occidental stock.

Financial reports can also use different investment categories. Berkshire’s June 2026 financial report showed $323.8 billion in equity securities, with its five largest holdings accounting for 66% of that category. That denominator differs from the 13F total used above. Neither percentage measures concentration across all of Berkshire.

These distinctions prevent three common mistakes: treating a stock list as the whole company, treating an acquisition as a stock purchase, and treating an old disclosure as today’s portfolio.

What Buffett still gets right

Buffett’s durable investment principles are easier to understand through his shareholder letters than through guesses about a quarterly trade. Three habits from Berkshire’s playbook remain useful.

Understand the business and your limits

In his 1992 shareholder letter, Buffett explained the importance of staying with businesses he could understand and recognizing the boundaries of that knowledge. This is the basis of a circle of competence: the area where you can make a reasoned judgment about a company’s economics and prospects.

Familiarity with a product is only a starting point. You also need a view on how the company earns money, why customers keep buying, and what could weaken its position. Owning an iPhone doesn’t, by itself, give you an investment thesis for Apple.

The practical habit is to separate what you know from what you’re assuming. A recognizable brand or an impressive pitch can make that harder than it sounds.

Leave room for mistakes in the price

Buffett’s 1992 letter also describes a margin of safety in the purchase price. If his estimate of a stock’s value only slightly exceeded its price, he wasn’t interested.

Intrinsic value is an estimate of what a business is worth based on its future economics. Estimates can be wrong. Paying less than a conservative estimate leaves some room for error, although it offers no guarantee against loss.

This discipline connects business quality to price. A company can have loyal customers and capable managers while its shares still demand assumptions you’re unwilling to make.

Think in years while staying willing to change

In his 2013 shareholder letter, Buffett described evaluating stocks as pieces of businesses. He and Charlie Munger considered whether they could reasonably estimate earnings five or more years ahead, then compared the purchase price with the conservative end of that estimate.

That is a demanding standard. When they couldn’t make the estimate, they moved on.

A long horizon leaves room for business results to develop. It also requires attention to whether the original assumptions still hold. In his CEO letter in Berkshire’s 2025 annual report, Abel describes a willingness to change holdings when fundamental long-term prospects change. Patience can coexist with selling.

A bounded lesson for startup investors

Berkshire’s established-company holdings offer limited guidance for choosing pre-seed startups. A young company may have little revenue, no reliable earnings history, and an advantage that is still developing. Its private shares may be impossible to sell for years. A startup can fail, and an individual investment can lose its entire value.

We borrow the habit of explicit reasoning. We keep startup portfolio construction and risk separate from Berkshire’s public-stock concentration.

At Hustle Fund, our co-founder and general partner Elizabeth Yin writes in Democratizing Knowledge: “The more disciplined you are in your thought process/rubric, the more you can improve over time.” For an angel, that means recording why you believe the founder understands the customer, what evidence supports demand, and what would change your view.

For example, a software operator evaluating a startup that sells to finance teams may understand the buying process and implementation hurdles. That experience can sharpen questions about customer demand. It cannot establish that the startup will survive or that the investment price is attractive.

Domain knowledge also needs room for change. Our co-founder and general partner Eric Bahn asks, “When it comes to markets, you always need to factor in: is something that is true today going to be true tomorrow?” His reflection on passing on CoinTracker is a reminder that today’s market can be a poor guide to its future size.

A startup’s lower entry price, capable founders, or room to pivot can improve an investment case. None provides a dependable floor under its value. Our case for spreading your bets starts with that uncertainty. Diversification can reduce dependence on one company, but it cannot prevent losses.

To practice that decision process with curated deal flow, investor education, and peers, apply to Angel Squad.

This is educational information, not investment, accounting, valuation, legal, or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy any security. Startup investments are speculative, illiquid, long-term commitments and can lose all their value. Past results and reported market values do not guarantee future results. Seek independent advice from qualified investment, accounting, legal, and tax professionals for your circumstances.