Warren Buffett's Investment Playbook: A Deep Dive Into Berkshire Hathaway's 46-Stock Portfolio Valued at $313 Billion

The investment world is at an inflection point. Warren Buffett’s impending retirement as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway marks the end of an unprecedented era in capital allocation. Yet before that transition occurs in early 2026, it’s worth examining exactly what the legendary investor has built—and more intriguingly, what he’s not putting his money into.

The Core Architecture: How Buffett Allocates $313 Billion Across Markets

Berkshire Hathaway’s current equity portfolio spans 46 distinct positions totaling approximately $313 billion. What’s immediately striking isn’t the diversity—it’s the concentration. Buffett has never been one to chase breadth over quality, and his portfolio structure proves it.

The company’s ten largest holdings represent roughly 82.1% of total portfolio value. This isn’t accidental. It reflects Buffett’s core conviction: if you’ve done your research and identified a compelling opportunity, position sizing should reflect that conviction.

Apple dominates at the top, commanding $75.9 billion (24.2% of holdings). American Express follows with $54.6 billion (17.4%), a position Buffett has maintained for decades, demonstrating his belief in the power of long-term compounding in quality franchises. Bank of America ($32.2B, 10.3%), Coca-Cola ($27.6B, 8.8%), and Chevron ($18.8B, 6%) round out the “mega-positions.”

The pattern is clear: Buffett gravitates toward businesses with durable competitive advantages, pricing power, and predictable cash flows. Moody’s ($11.8B, 3.8%) and Occidental Petroleum ($10.9B, 3.5%) represent slightly different bets—one on financial infrastructure, the other on energy commodities. Japanese holdings like Mitsubishi ($9.3B, 3%), Itochu ($7.8B, 2.5%), and later Mitsui & Co ($7.2B, 2.3%) reflect his willingness to deploy capital across geographies and cultures when valuations align with quality.

The Breadth Layer: Smaller Positions Reveal Hidden Strategy

Beyond the top ten, Berkshire Hathaway holds fourteen additional stocks accounting for roughly 14.8% of portfolio value. This tier reveals Buffett’s evolving interests and response to market dislocations.

Chubb Limited ($7.5B, 2.4%) demonstrates a return to insurance—a sector that’s always held special appeal for Buffett’s operational philosophy. DaVita ($3.9B, 1.2%) represents exposure to healthcare infrastructure, while UnitedHealth Group ($1.7B, 0.6%) was acquired after a “controversy-driven tumble”—classic Buffett contrarian positioning.

Payment processors Visa ($2.9B, 0.9%) and Mastercard ($2.2B, 0.7%) represent a different category of moats—network effects and switching costs. Amazon ($2.2B, 0.7%) is particularly noteworthy. Buffett has famously acknowledged missing the e-commerce giant’s full potential, yet one of his investment managers eventually added a stake, albeit measured. It’s a rare example of Buffett’s adaptability—acknowledging when external perspectives add value.

The Micro-Bets: When Even Small Positions Matter

The remaining 22 positions represent just 3% of holdings but nearly $10 billion in aggregate. These range from Domino’s Pizza ($1.1B, 0.3%) to Lennar and D.R. Horton (homebuilders), Charter Communications ($0.2B, 0.1%), and Atlanta Braves Holdings ($<0.1B).

This tail might seem immaterial, but managing scale requires discipline about friction. Even when a position drops below meaningful percentage terms, Buffett doesn’t automatically liquidate. The thesis either changed or it didn’t. If it didn’t, there’s no reason to trade tax-efficiently held winners.

The Elephant in the Room: $344.1 Billion in Cash

Here’s where the narrative gets contentious. Berkshire Hathaway currently holds $344.1 billion in cash—more than the market value of its entire stock portfolio.

This cash hoard represents a strategic choice that will be debated for decades. Buffett’s famous maxim is that he avoids overpaying for any asset. Cash, in his framework, is an option—a call on future opportunities. When assets trade above intrinsic value, cash preserves optionality.

Yet there’s an alternative reading: in a market that’s spent much of the 2020s at valuations Buffett clearly viewed as stretched, accumulating cash may have felt prudent. The question future analysts will wrestle with: was this discipline or missed opportunity?

For most individual investors, the behavioral lesson differs. Dollar-cost averaging into diversified holdings typically outperforms attempts to time markets. While maintaining some cash for unexpected opportunities is prudent, “time in the market generally beats timing the market.” Buffett’s hundred-billion-dollar reserve is a luxury of scale and institutional constraints that don’t apply to retail portfolios.

What This Portfolio Reveals About Buffett’s Investment Philosophy

The Warren Buffett portfolio list compiled across these 46 positions tells a coherent story:

First, quality compounds. The decades-long holds in American Express and Coca-Cola demonstrate that great businesses kept great remain great. Transaction costs, taxes, and emotional friction all favor staying put.

Second, concentrated conviction beats diversification for its own sake. The top ten holdings represent over 82% of value. This isn’t a bug—it’s the feature.

Third, Buffett maintains flexibility. Japanese trading companies, insurance operators, homebuilders, and payment networks aren’t obvious clusters. They share one thing: reasonable valuations for quality operations at the time of purchase.

Fourth, dividend philosophy matters. Buffett has long favored dividend-paying stocks while notably refusing to pay Berkshire Hathaway a dividend, preferring to reinvest earnings and redeploy capital toward highest-return opportunities.

As Buffett steps back from daily operations, his portfolio stands as the most instructive investor document available—a nearly-permanent record of how capital should be deployed in pursuit of wealth creation over decades.