Warren Buffett and Greg Abel walkthrough the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting successful Omaha, Nebraska connected May 3, 2025.
David A. Grogen | CNBC
In the last agelong of his tenure atop Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett was inactive pursuing that elusive elephant.
The 95-year-old legendary investor, who handed implicit the CEO reins to Greg Abel astatine the commencement of 2026, made it wide that woody size was not the constraint, it was deficiency of opportunities.
"It's outer circumstances. Believe maine if aft we get finished talking you say, 'I've got a large $100 cardinal caller idea.' I would say, 'Let's talk,'" Buffett told Becky Quick in a peculiar interrogation successful May aft helium said helium was stepping down astatine the extremity of the year.
The never-before-seen interrogation is portion of the "Warren Buffett: A Life and Legacy" peculiar airing Tuesday astatine 7 p.m. ET. connected CNBC.
The remarks underscore a cardinal paradox astatine Berkshire today. The institution is awash successful liquidity, with its currency hoard swelling to a grounds $381.6 billion astatine the extremity of the 3rd quarter, but Buffett recovered nary opportunities successful 2025 ample capable to determination the needle astatine prices helium considers sensible.
"It means that erstwhile I look astatine the banal market, erstwhile I look astatine companies of a size that would marque immoderate quality to our total, I don't spot anything. Well, we're buying 1 oregon 2 things, but it's peanuts. But I'm consenting to walk $100 cardinal this afternoon, you know," Buffett, present chairman, told CNBC.
In October, Berkshire closed a woody to bargain Occidental Petroleum's chemic business, OxyChem, for $9.7 cardinal successful cash, marking its largest acquisition since 2022, erstwhile it paid $11.6 cardinal for insurer Alleghany.
Berkshire's currency has grown importantly aft Buffett aggressively dumped tremendous pieces of his 2 largest holdings, Apple and Bank of America.
Buffett doesn't privation to beryllium sitting connected this overmuch cash. He has agelong warned that currency is simply a mediocre semipermanent asset, adjacent arsenic helium insists connected holding ample reserves to upwind unforeseen shocks.
"I'd alternatively person $100 cardinal and a truly bully concern astatine a sensible terms than person $100 cardinal successful cash," helium said. "At definite levels, currency is necessary, but currency is not a bully asset."
He likened liquidity to oxygen, inexpensive to support and catastrophic to tally retired of astatine the incorrect moment.
"You ever privation to person enough," Buffett said. "You don't person to wage a batch for it. But you bash request oxygen. And currency is that way. You ever request to person it disposable due to the fact that you bash not cognize what volition happen. I bash not cognize what the banal marketplace volition do, and I bash not cognize what concern volition do."
Abel has been a longtime lieutenant who played a cardinal relation successful respective of Berkshire's acquisitions peculiarly successful energy, and helped alteration Berkshire Hathaway Energy into a powerhouse.
While Abel's dealmaking credentials are established, Berkshire shareholders whitethorn not widen him the aforesaid patience they person agelong afforded Buffett. With the conglomerate sitting connected a upland of currency and shares underperforming the market, unit to deploy superior could rapidly go a defining situation for the caller CEO.
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