BRK-B vs SFTBY: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

Same yardstick, side by side (as of October 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. BRK-B and SFTBY share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined BRK-B and SFTBY exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Berkshire Hathaway is a diversified holding company that owns a wide range of businesses outright and holds a large portfolio of public stocks. Its foundation is insurance: GEICO, Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance, and other insurers generate underwriting profit and, more importantly, float (premiums held before claims are paid) that Berkshire invests. In Q1 2026 insurance underwriting income rose to about $1.72 billion from $1.34 billion a year earlier, and Q2 2026 underwriting income was about $1.73 billion. Insurance float stood at about $177.5 billion at June 30, 2026. Beyond insurance, Berkshire owns the BNSF railroad, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, and consumer and industrial businesses such as Duracell, Dairy Queen, See's Candies, and Precision Castparts, alongside a stock portfolio historically anchored by names like Apple and American Express. Under Abel the operating group has kept growing by acquisition: Berkshire completed its purchase of OxyChem on January 2, 2026 and closed the $8.5 billion acquisition of homebuilder Taylor Morrison on July 24, 2026.

Full BRK-B guide

SoftBank Group Corp. is a Japanese strategic investment holding company led by founder Masayoshi Son. Its main assets are a roughly 90% stake in chip designer Arm Holdings, a stake of about 13% in OpenAI (built from cumulative commitments of roughly $64.6 billion by October 2026), a large holding in Japanese telecom SoftBank Corp., and the Vision Fund portfolios, which hold stakes in companies such as Coupang, DiDi and Klarna along with a ByteDance position. Over 2025 and 2026 it sold holdings including Nvidia and T-Mobile US to fund its AI commitments, took a stake in Intel, and backed the Stargate data center build-out with OpenAI and Oracle, with Son named chairman of that venture. It has also announced a planned Ohio power and data center campus that a SoftBank executive described as having about 10 gigawatts of planned capacity. In practice, the group has moved from a diversified venture investor toward a concentrated, debt-funded vehicle for AI infrastructure and model companies.

Full SFTBY guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• BRK-B drivers: Leadership transition to Greg Abel; Insurance float and underwriting.
• SFTBY drivers: OpenAI valuation and a possible IPO; Arm Holdings.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: The central 2026 risk is the leadership transition itself, now complete at the top with Buffett as chairman emeritus: Buffett's judgment and reputation were core to Berkshire's edge, and the market will test whether Greg Abel can allocate capital as effectively, especially with a record cash pile to deploy. For SFTBY, concentration is the core risk: a large share of NAV now rests on two assets, one of them private and valued at funding-round prices that could be marked down.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick BRK-B if you believe its drivers more; SFTBY if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the BRK-B and SFTBY guides.

BRK-B. Figures are approximate and tied to mid-October 2026; verify live numbers before acting. Because accounting rules force Berkshire to mark its large stock portfolio to market each quarter, GAAP net income is noisy: the trailing P/E of about 13 is flattered by investment gains, while the forward multiple of about 24 is based on operating earnings alone. The cash balance means a meaningful part of the market cap is cash awaiting deployment, and the resumption of buybacks in 2026 suggests management sees the shares as reasonably priced. Third-quarter results are expected around November 7, 2026.

SFTBY. SoftBank is usually valued on NAV minus a discount rather than on earnings, because profits are dominated by mark-to-market gains and losses on its holdings. The company reported NAV per share near ¥12,700 at June 30, 2026 against a Tokyo price near ¥6,000, though press estimates of NAV were lower by August as listed holdings fell, so the discount moves with both the assets and the share price. The 4-for-1 share split effective January 1, 2026 restated all per-share figures. The dividend is small relative to the share price (a post-split forecast of ¥11 per share for the full year to March 2027), so returns for holders have come almost entirely from price changes rather than income.

Headline figures (approximate, October 2026): BRK-B shows operating earnings (q2 2026) ~$12.98 billion, up ~16% from ~$11.16 billion; first half ~$24.3 billion, net earnings (q2 2026) ~$25.7 billion, including ~$12.7 billion of investment gains from equity marks, revenue (ttm) ~$385 billion; Q2 2026 revenue up ~10% year over year, insurance float ~$177.5 billion at June 30, 2026; SFTBY shows net asset value (june 30, 2026) ~¥72 trillion (company figure; ~¥58 trillion in early-August press estimates), loan-to-value ratio ~13% (policy ceiling 25%), q1 fy2026 net income (apr to jun 2026) ~¥347 billion, down ~18% year on year, vision fund gain, fy to march 2026 ~$46 billion, mostly OpenAI.

BRK-B and SFTBY are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined BRK-B and SFTBY exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.