Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway makes new ATH as the stock market crashes. How is he doing it?

Berkshire Hathaway just hit a new all-time high while Wall Street is drowning in fear. The company led by Warren is now outperforming almost every major index in 2025.

In February alone, Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares jumped 10.3%, which was its best month since March 2022. And March isn’t slowing down either—the stock added another 2.5% this month, right in the middle of a chaotic market. This is the company’s strongest two-month performance against the S&P 500 since 2010.

While investors panic over recession, inflation, and Trump’s second term, Warren has done almost nothing in public markets. In 2024, he stayed quiet. He didn’t make huge buys. He didn’t announce flashy deals. Instead, Berkshire sold more stocks than it bought and reduced buybacks compared to previous years.

At the same time, the company piled up an enormous cash reserve—$334 billion in cash and short-term Treasury bills—waiting for the rest of the market to bleed.

Berkshire piles cash while others get stuck in stagflation hell

Warren wasn’t alone in seeing the 2024 market rise as unsustainable. After Trump returned to the White House, U.S. markets had a short rally. But it didn’t last. By early 2025, the optimism collapsed.

Now people are scared of stagflation, which is a nightmare combo of rising prices and slower growth. That fear is pushing money into companies like Berkshire, which doesn’t carry debt and sits on massive cash reserves.

While investors look for safety, Berkshire has become a landing zone. And Warren is ready to strike. With hundreds of billions in dry powder, he can buy when everyone else is forced to sell. But don’t confuse that with him liking to sit on cash. He made it clear in his letter to shareholders that this isn’t some strategy. “We would prefer owning good businesses,” he said. But when prices are too high, he waits.

That cash pile is already going to work abroad. While Warren has always favored the U.S., he’s not loyal to overpriced markets. He started investing in Japan years ago, and now, he’s increased Berkshire’s stakes in five of Japan’s biggest trading companies. In filings from earlier this year, Berkshire showed it now holds between 8.5% and 9.8% of each of them.

Warren bets heavier on Japan as U.S. volatility grows

The five companies are Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, and Sumitomo. These Japanese firms do a mix of things—moving metals, textiles, food, and other materials—and running the logistics behind all that. Their model isn’t far from Berkshire’s: own multiple businesses, keep debt low, and reinvest wisely.

In Warren’s 2025 shareholder letter, he said Berkshire won’t cross the 10% ownership line with these firms, but that they’re long-term investments. He praised their structure and decision-making. “Greg has met many times with them, and I regularly follow their progress,” Warren wrote.

“Each of the five companies increase dividends when appropriate, they repurchase their shares when it is sensible to do so, and their top managers are far less aggressive in their compensation programs than their U.S. counterparts.”

He also pointed out that these companies have solid balance sheets, good capital strategies, and don’t overpay executives. Berkshire even took out more yen-denominated loans to strengthen its Japan position. It’s not just a hedge—it’s a conviction move.

Meanwhile, Berkshire’s Class B stock is up 16% this year, while the S&P 500 is down 4.5%. That gap is massive. It’s also not a surprise. Berkshire still holds big chunks of high-margin giants like Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, and Moody’s. These are companies that have kept pumping out profits even when markets slide.

“We own a small percentage of a dozen or so very large and highly profitable businesses with household names,” Warren wrote in the letter.

And he made another thing clear—his own paycheck isn’t bloated. “My compensation is far less than almost all public company CEOs,” he wrote. That’s his way of saying he’s not wasting shareholder money.

Market bleeds while Berkshire gains, Fed sends mixed signals

This all happened while U.S. stock futures were dropping. On Friday morning, S&P 500 futures fell 0.41%, Dow Jones futures dropped 180 points, and Nasdaq 100 slipped 0.46%. The selloff followed another ugly session the day before. Thursday’s numbers showed S&P 500 down 0.2%, Nasdaq off 0.3%, and Dow dropping 11.31 points. That’s not a crash, but it’s part of a longer trend.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve stuck to its plan for two interest rate cuts this year, but that’s where the good news ended. The Fed also said inflation is higher than expected, and growth will be slower than they thought.

That freaked out a lot of traders, especially because of what Fed Chair Jerome Powell said. He warned that Trump’s new tariffs could make inflation worse, saying they may “delay” the Fed’s fight against rising prices.

Michael Green, who is chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management, explained what’s happening with companies. “Companies are increasingly citing confusion and uncertainty around their planning and capital spending and hiring decisions,” he said. “When they pause, it means that they’re slowing down. There’s an element of that playing out in the markets.”

This isn’t just a blip. The Nasdaq is still in correction territory, meaning it’s more than 10% below its recent high. The S&P 500 briefly hit correction levels last week. This week has shown some signs of life, though.

The S&P 500 is up 0.4% for the week, which could end a four-week losing streak. The Dow is up 1.1%, its best weekly gain since late January. But the Nasdaq is still down 0.4%, and if that holds, it will be the fifth week in a row of losses. That hasn’t happened since May 2022.

So while the broader market is hanging on by a thread, Warren is watching from a distance, holding $300 billion in cash, buying big in Japan, and watching his company’s stock print new highs. He isn’t chasing trends. He isn’t betting on hype. He’s doing what he’s always done—waiting, watching, and buying when others can’t.

Cryptopolitan Academy: Coming Soon - A New Way to Earn Passive Income with DeFi in 2025. Learn More