Berkshire Hathaway Doubles Buybacks, Spends $9.6B on Its Own Stock

Berkshire Hathaway went on a buying spree in the third quarter of 2026 — for its own stock. The Omaha giant repurchased $9.6 billion of its own shares in Q3, more than doubling the pace of buybacks from earlier in the year, according to a post from @KobeissiLetter.

That single quarter pushed Berkshire's total 2026 buybacks to $14.4 billion. It's a dramatic flip from a company that had sat on its hands for nearly 22 months, refusing to repurchase a single share while it waited for prices it liked.

The buybacks aren't the only money moving. Berkshire has also been a net buyer of other companies' stocks this year, with net purchases reaching $11.2 billion year-to-date. A year earlier, the picture was the exact opposite: net sales of $10.6 billion over the same stretch of 2025.

So what changed? Berkshire is deploying capital again — a shift that suggests the company found valuations it could live with after a long stretch of sitting in cash. The 22-month buyback pause made the drought look deliberate; the Q3 surge makes the re-entry look equally deliberate.

For investors who track Berkshire as a read on the wider market, the swing is the story. A conglomerate that spent 2025 selling stocks and sitting out buybacks is now doing both at once — and at a scale that's hard to miss.

Watch the next quarterly filing for whether the pace holds. One quarter of aggressive buying is a signal; two in a row would be a pattern.