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- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway could spend $80 billion on acquisitions.
- FedEx, GM, Ford, Twitter, Chipotle, and eBay are in the investor's price range.
- Buffett doesn't expect any deals soon because of fierce competition.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Warren Buffett has $80 billion in excess cash that he's itching to deploy, the famed investor said at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting on Saturday. That's enough to buy some of the biggest and best-known companies in America.
"We've got probably $70 or $80 billion that we'd love to put the work," Buffett said. Berkshire boasted over $140 billion in cash and short-term investments as of March 31, but it keeps roughly $60 billion of that in reserve as a safety net.
Looking only at market capitalizations – ignoring whether a purchase would be possible, sensible, or even legal – Buffett's $80 billion could buy Duke Energy ($76 billion), Sherwin-Williams ($75 billion), Activision Blizzard ($70 billion), or Colgate-Palmolive ($69 billion).
If Berkshire stretched its budget, it could snap up Mondelez ($86 billion), General Motors ($84 billion), or FedEx ($81 billion). The conglomerate could comfortably afford Monster Beverage ($50 billion), Ford ($46 billion), Twitter ($43 billion), Chipotle ($40 billion), or eBay ($40 billion).
Buffett could also scoop up Hershey ($35 billion), Hilton ($34 billion), or Best Buy ($29 billion), even if he had to pay a hefty premium to their current market cap. Overall, more than 350 companies in the S&P 500, and over half of the Nasdaq 100's constituents, fall within its budget.
Of course, Buffett is discerning about what he owns and would undoubtedly snub many of the businesses in his price range. He also ruled out a major acquisition in the near future at Berkshire's recent meeting, blaming fierce competition from special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) and private-equity firms.
"We won't get a chance to do it under these conditions," Buffett said about spending Berkshire's spare cash. "We do have people that would like to join us, but the market option they have is just too great for them."
"If they're publicly traded, they would have great difficulty making a deal with us, because somebody else would come along using other people's money," he added.
Buffett might struggle to spend his $80 billion for a while, but it's still worth noting the vast number of companies he could potentially buy.