Can’t manage without Buffett? Michael Berry is losing faith in Berkshire

Buffett stepped down as CEO at the end of 2025, after decades of turning Berkshire into one of the largest and most followed investment companies in the world. Now, under Greg Abel’s management, investors are trying to reassess the company’s ability to continue generating excess returns and successfully allocate capital without Buffett.

But Michael Berry is not convinced by the new direction.

The investor, who became famous thanks to the movie “The Big Short”, wrote that his biggest fear was that after Buffett’s retirement there would be an heir who would be “too old and not Warren”, and therefore would not have the patience that Buffett had to wait for an extraordinary investment opportunity. “I believe this concern has been realized,” Berry wrote, adding that he no longer sees Berkshire as an attractive investment going forward.

Berry, who wrote the words in a post on Substack, noted that Berkshire did begin to use some of its cash reserves under Greg Abel, but according to him, the new CEO’s first steps are more of a statement of intent than significant investment moves. According to Yahoo Finance, he noted that the company’s huge cash reserves still remain unused.

First time that the cash pool has been reduced in 4 years

This comes after Berkshire reported last week that it ended the second quarter with $365.5 billion in cash and short-term US government bonds, a decrease of about 8% compared to a record of $397.4 billion in the previous quarter. It was the first time in four years that Berkshire’s cash hoard shrank from quarter to quarter — a sign that the company has become a net buyer of stocks for the first time in a long time.

Berkshire purchased shares amounting to $23.5 billion, compared to sales amounting to only $3.7 billion. Among its notable moves was a $10 billion investment in Alphabet, along with its own purchase of Berkshire shares amounting to $4.5 billion.