The result was up from $11.16 billion in the same quarter a year earlier. Operating earnings reached $9,038.30 per Class A share, compared with $7,759.58 per Class A share in the year-earlier period.

The disclosures offer the first detailed view of capital-allocation decisions under Abel, who succeeded Warren Buffett as Berkshire’s chief executive. They also show the company moving away from holding all of its cash in short-term investments.

Cash falls as Berkshire buys stocks

Berkshire’s cash holdings declined to $365.5 billion at the end of June, down from nearly $400 billion at the end of March. During the quarter, the company invested about $10 billion in Alphabet, Google’s parent company.

Berkshire also repurchased about $4.5 billion of its own shares. The combination of the Alphabet investment and buybacks marks an early indication of how Abel is using Berkshire’s financial resources after taking over from Buffett.

The company’s public disclosures did not identify the purchase price, timing or number of Alphabet shares acquired. They also did not establish whether the investment represents a permanent portfolio decision or a controlling or strategic stake.

The reported cash figure is a consolidated cash-and-equivalents balance across Berkshire’s businesses. It is not, by itself, a statement that the entire amount is unrestricted or available for any single transaction.

Operating performance improves

Berkshire said operating revenue increased about 10% during the quarter. Operating earnings are a key measure for the company because they reflect results from its businesses while excluding certain investment gains and losses that can cause reported net income to fluctuate.

The second-quarter operating result covers Berkshire’s consolidated businesses, including major operations such as BNSF Railway and Berkshire Hathaway Energy. Berkshire is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, and its businesses and publicly traded shares are followed by investors across the United States.

The increase in operating earnings came as Abel began leading the company’s capital-allocation decisions. Buffett, who built Berkshire into a large collection of insurance, industrial, transportation, energy and consumer businesses, had remained closely associated with decisions about the company’s cash and investments.

Why the result matters

Berkshire’s cash balance had become a central focus for investors because of its size. The decline reported at the end of June, together with the Alphabet purchase and share repurchases, provides an early public measure of how the company may use that reserve under its new chief executive.

The figures do not by themselves indicate a broad change in Berkshire’s investment strategy. They show that the company used some of its cash during the quarter while continuing to generate substantial operating earnings from its businesses.

The earnings release and related disclosures provide the latest benchmark for Berkshire under Abel. The company’s next financial updates will show whether the Alphabet position, additional share repurchases or other uses of cash continue, but the second-quarter disclosures did not set out a specific timetable for further investments.

Operating earnings should not be confused with Berkshire’s GAAP net income, which can be affected by changes in the market value of the company’s investments. The figures reported here describe the company’s operating performance and its disclosed capital-allocation activity for the quarter.

The figures were released in early July by PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association. Axios reported that the first-half total exceeded every previous full-year U.S. venture-investment total, was about 29% higher than the total for all of 2025 and was roughly 15% above the prior record set in 2021.

Most of the money went to mega-rounds

More than 81% of the capital invested during the first half went into rounds of at least $100 million. The second quarter alone included seven financings of $1 billion or more, according to Axios.

The National Venture Capital Association said artificial intelligence and mega-rounds accounted for the overwhelming majority of invested capital. Fundraising also remained concentrated among a small number of established venture managers, rather than spreading evenly across the industry.

That distinction matters because venture totals measure dollars, not the number of companies receiving funding. A handful of billion-dollar rounds can push the overall figure sharply higher even if the number of funded startups grows much more slowly—or falls in some stages.

Why the record may feel different to founders

Independent Crunchbase data showed a similar pattern across the United States and Canada during the first half: record funding, unusually strong artificial-intelligence concentration and deal counts that remained below earlier highs. Crunchbase reported $392 billion in North American startup investment, a separate measure from the $412.7 billion U.S. total reported by PitchBook-NVCA. The difference reflects the two sources’ different coverage and methodologies.

Crunchbase also reported that early-stage funding rose in the second quarter, while deal count reached its lowest level in five quarters. Its data therefore reinforce the central point: aggregate dollars can rise sharply without a proportional increase in the number of financings.

For founders, the practical question is not whether venture capital is available in the aggregate. It is whether capital is available for their stage, sector, business model and valuation expectations.

Frontier-AI companies and other businesses able to attract very large late-stage rounds are benefiting most directly. Companies outside those categories may still be raising money—Crunchbase identified increases in some sectors—but the distribution of capital is uneven. A record market does not automatically mean broader access to funding.

Smaller startups may therefore face a mixed environment. The data show that investors are willing to deploy very large checks, but they do not establish that seed and early-stage capital is broadly available on the same terms. Founders may need to plan carefully around traction, fundraising timing and runway while watching whether smaller financings broaden in the second half.

Exits are the next test

The NVCA said initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions improved in the second quarter. Those exits matter beyond the companies that go public or get acquired: they can return money to investors, help limited partners commit to new funds and create conditions for venture managers to support more startups.

Improved exits alone, however, do not prove that the wider venture ecosystem has recovered. NVCA said the recovery remains uneven and that broader improvements in the exit environment will be essential to restoring liquidity across the innovation economy.

What to watch in the second half

The most important indicators will be the number of deals, seed-stage activity, the concentration of new fundraising and the breadth of exit activity. Investors will also be watching whether mega-rounds continue to dominate or whether capital begins moving into smaller and earlier financings.

The first-half result is a record for venture dollars invested in U.S. companies, not a full-year total or a forecast. The next question is whether the second half produces more funded companies—or simply another set of exceptionally large AI and late-stage rounds.

Sources

• PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, Q2 2026 — National Venture Capital Association
• Venture capital is already having a record year — Axios
• North American Startup Funding Shattered Records in First Half of 2026 — Crunchbase News

Default fund at launch

At launch, Treasury said all contributions will go into State Street’s SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF, known as SPYM. Treasury also named four additional low-cost index ETFs for later use: iShares Core S&P 500 ETF, Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 1500 Composite Stock Market ETF, and iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF.

Those extra choices will not be available right away. Treasury said parents or guardians will be able to choose among them in the coming months, once the department turns on that feature.

Philanthropic stock path

Treasury and IRS also announced a process for accepting eligible donations of publicly traded stock. Under the new process, eligible philanthropic contributors may transfer approved stock to Treasury, which would then be contributed to Trump Accounts for eligible children under donor instructions and Treasury guidance.

The IRS guidance says Trump Accounts cannot be funded before July 4, 2026. It also says the federal government will make a one-time $1,000 contribution for each eligible child’s account, with annual contribution limits for individuals and employers. Money generally cannot be withdrawn before the year the child turns 18.

For families, the immediate takeaway is simple: the program is moving from announcement to implementation, but deposits have to wait until July 4. The next items to watch are the account-opening process, when the extra fund choices become available, and how Treasury handles the stock-contribution pathway in practice.

Sources

• U.S. Treasury: Treasury Announces Investment Lineup for Trump Accounts
• IRS: Working Families Tax Cuts guidance
• Associated Press: Trump Accounts launch — what to know