Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire’s composite moat rests on several durable sources. Insurance float of approximately 176 billion dollars at September 30, 2025 provides extremely low-cost, often costless, long-duration funding that scales with underwriting profitability across GEICO, Berkshire Hathaway Primary, and Reinsurance.

The group generated pre-tax underwriting gains in Q3 and year to date, while float increased from year end 2024. GEICO’s loss ratio has been sub-75% for seven consecutive quarters, though acquisition expenses are currently rising as the company pushes for new business. This cost-of-capital advantage is both large and persistent.

BNSF is an efficient-scale network business where replication is uneconomic. Third-quarter 2025 showed modest volume and revenue growth with improving operating ratio, indicating pricing and cost control on a network that is extremely difficult to duplicate.

Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s regulated utilities own large monopolistic service territories with tariff structures that allow returns on rate base. The rate-base growth opportunity from grid and renewables remains robust industry-wide, though BHE’s PacifiCorp faces wildfire liabilities that could pressure credit and liquidity.

Intangible and cultural moats include a decentralized structure, conservative underwriting discipline, and a reputation that attracts high-quality sellers. Cash and investment scale lower cost of capital and enable opportunistic deployment.

Weighting efficient scale and cost advantage most heavily, we assess the moat as wide and resilient but trim the score for BHE wildfire exposure and the inherent cyclicality in rail and insurance.