First-quarter working earnings at Berkshire Hathaway got here in at $11.35 billion, roughly 18% above the $9.64 billion the corporate posted in the identical three months of 2025. The outcomes mark CEO Greg Abel’s first quarterly report since taking up from Warren Buffett on Jan. 1, 2026. The determine missed the $11.56 billion Wall Road had anticipated, per CNN.
Shareholder web revenue for the quarter reached roughly $10.1 billion, greater than twice the $4.6 billion recorded within the year-ago interval. That determine consists of funding losses of $1.24 billion within the quarter, pushed by about $7 billion in unrealized losses on fairness securities, partially offset by $5.8 billion in after-tax realized beneficial properties on funding gross sales. Berkshire stated funding beneficial properties or losses in any given quarter are “often meaningless” as a measure of enterprise efficiency.
On the underwriting facet, insurance coverage revenue expanded by roughly 28%, reaching $1.72 billion versus $1.34 billion twelve months prior. Insurance coverage funding revenue declined to $2.68 billion from $2.89 billion. BNSF contributed $1.38 billion, up from $1.21 billion, and Berkshire Hathaway Power added $1.11 billion, in contrast with $1.10 billion within the prior-year interval.
By quarter’s finish, Berkshire’s whole money place had swelled to over $397 billion, advancing from the $373 billion on its books when 2025 closed, in keeping with CNN. Insurance coverage float — the web liabilities the corporate assumes underneath insurance coverage contracts — stood at about $176.9 billion as of March 31, a rise of about $500 million since year-end 2025, Berkshire stated.
At Saturday’s annual shareholder assembly in Omaha, Nebraska, Abel led the proceedings alongside a number of members of his administration workforce. Buffett, now holding the chairman title, addressed the gathering from his seat on the ground somewhat than from the stage. Among the many topics Abel addressed was expertise adoption; he cautioned that the corporate supposed to pursue synthetic intelligence solely the place it might show real worth, saying Berkshire was “not going to do AI for the sake of AI,” in keeping with CNBC. Buffett provided a public endorsement of his successor, saying: “He is doing the whole lot I did after which some, and he is doing it higher in all circumstances.”
Abel has labored to sign continuity since taking the highest function. In his first annual letter to shareholders, Abel described Berkshire much less as an organization than a stewardship association, writing that shareholder capital “doesn’t belong to us.” He additionally acknowledged that after a number of years of bettering pricing and phrases, the insurance coverage business started to see “a deceleration or reversal” in 2025, significantly within the latter half of the yr. Shortly after assuming the CEO function, Abel additionally restarted Berkshire’s share repurchase program, which had been paused since 2024, disclosing the transfer in a way the corporate described as being “within the curiosity of transparency with our management transition.”
