Something often ignored or forgotten here: Berkshire Hathaway presently owns roughly $750 billion in productive income-generating assets.

For perspective, Berkshire’s entire market capitalization — including all cash and Treasury holdings — was approximately:

• 1999: $85 billion
• 2004: $135 billion
• 2014: $370 billion
• 2022: $681 billion

Yes, Berkshire is now an enormous company, and its large cash position is well documented. But remove ALL the cash, and you still have the most highly capitalized operating/investment business in Berkshire history prior to just a few years ago and still one of the largest collections of productive businesses and investments in the world today.

The idea that Warren Buffett has been simply “standing in the batter’s box with the bat on his shoulders” ignores the scale and continuing earning power of the assets Berkshire already owns. And the large but infrequent deployments of cash (i.e. $35 Billion in Apple generating $185 Billion of economic value). It’s a baseball game with no called strikes. Where batting averages dictate success.

Berkshire’s existing massive portfolio of productive businesses continues compounding every day whether a major acquisition occurs tomorrow or not.