PIF and Berkshire are now telling the same story about US equities

Two of the world’s smartest money managers just looked at the blue-chip US equity market and said no thanks. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway filed their quarterly US equity disclosures with the SEC on Friday, 15 May, and what they had in common was more interesting than what they bought.

Berkshire Hathaway’s first 13F under its new CEO Greg Abel shows a firm in active retreat from broad US equity exposure. Berkshire exited 16 positions entirely in 1Q 2026 — including full sales of Amazon, Visa, Mastercard, and UnitedHealth — while buying USD 15.94 bn in stocks against USD 24.09 bn in sales.

The marquee additions were a new USD 2.65 bn stake in Delta Air Lines, reversing Buffett’s 2020 airline exit, and a near-tripling of the Alphabet Class C position to roughly 58 mn shares. Even after that rebalancing, Berkshire’s cashpile sat at USD 397 bn at quarter-end — the firm's way of saying it can't find enough stocks worth buying at current prices. Berkshire has been a net seller for 14 quarters in a row.

Read against Berkshire’s filing, PIF tells a similar story, though the two funds got there differently. According to PIF’s first 13F filing of the year, the fund now holds just four US-listed positions — Uber (USD 5.24 bn), Electronic Arts (USD 5.06 bn), Lucid Group (USD 1.69 bn), and Clarivate (USD 20.9 mn) — for a combined USD 12 bn, marking their lowest level in five years, Argaam reports. Visa, Mastercard, and Amazon were already gone from PIF’s book before this quarter.

ICYMI- PIF’s portfolio of US holdings peaked at USD 56.7 bn across 36 positions at the end of 2021, and has been contracting ever since. The PIF also recently cut its international allocation target to 20% in April, down from 30%, signaling a broader shift toward deploying more sovereign capital at home.

Why it matters: PIF’s latest filing adds more weight to something markets have slowly been picking up on. Gulf sovereign money is increasingly being called home. As regional governments ramp up domestic spending — with defense and reconstruction costs from the Iran war also looming — broad exposure to US mega-caps appears to matter less than it once did.

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asia-Pacific markets are down in early trading this morning, triggered by fears of further escalations in the ongoing regional war after US President Donald Trump told Iran to “get moving.”

THE CLOSING BELL-

The DFM fell 0.5% on Friday on turnover of AED 531.6 mn. The index is down 5.6% YTD.

In the green: Tecom Group (+6.0%), Al Mazaya Holding Company (+4.2%), and Dubai Residential REIT (+3.5%).

In the red: Unikai Foods (-4.8%), National Industries Group Holding (-4.8%), and Shuaa Capital (-4.6%).

Over on the ADX, the index fell 0.3% on turnover of AED 863.9 mn. Meanwhile, Nasdaq Dubai was down 0.6%.