In his annual letter to investors, Buffett said the record profits came despite more than half of the company's operating businesses reporting a decline in earnings last year.
"In 2024, Berkshire did better than I expected though 53% of our 189 operating businesses reported a decline in earnings," he wrote.
"We were aided by a predictable large gain in investment income as Treasury bill yields improved and we substantially increased our holdings of these highly-liquid short-term securities."
Berkshire's cash pile and other cash-like securities, such as Treasury bills, stood at $334.2bn at the end of the year, which is nearly double the $167.6bn seen at the end of 2023.
"Despite what some commentators currently view as an extraordinary cash position at Berkshire, the great majority of your money remains in equities," Buffett wrote. "That preference won’t change.
"While our ownership in marketable equities moved downward last year from $354bn to $272bn, the value of our non-quoted controlled equities increased somewhat and remains far greater than the value of the marketable portfolio," he said.
Berkshire Hathaway shares were flat in pre-market trading on Monday morning.
Chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) is due to report its full-year results on Wednesday, with investors focused on what the figures show about demand for AI chips.
Given the lofty expectations around the company's earnings, Wall Street is expecting the stock to move 7% in either direction on the results.
On the back of revenue of $35.1bn in the third quarter, Nvidia (NVDA) guided to $37.5bn — plus or minus 2% — for the final quarter of its fiscal year.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.L), said: "Despite the emergence of large language models which are cheaper to run, other signs, including huge infrastructure investment plans from tech giants like Meta (META), indicate that Nvidia’s (NVDA) high-end chips will remain in demand."
"Investors are expecting another mega number in terms of revenue growth — which is expected to land at 72%," she said. "Enthusiasm is still super-hot for AI investments, but given Nvidia’s (NVDA) mega growth spurt, expect some volatility ahead if the results don’t meet expectations."
Chinese technology giant Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA) is reportedly planning to spend more than 380 billion yuan (£41.5bn) on AI infrastructure over the next few years.
According to a Bloomberg report, Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA) aims to spend more on its AI and cloud computing than it has over the past decade.
Hong Kong-listed shares in Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA) fell 2% on Monday, signalling continued investor caution around the level of spending on AI by major tech companies.
Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA) posted revenue of 280.2 billion yuan, compared to expectations of 277.4 billion yuan and adjusted earnings per share of 20.39 yuan also came in ahead of 19.12 yuan.
Shares in Just Eat Takeaway (TKWY.AS) rocketed 53% on Monday morning, after it was announced that it had agreed to be bought by investment group Prosus (PRX.AS) for €4.1bn (£3.4bn).
In a joint announcement on Monday, Jitse Groen, CEO and founder of Just Eat Takeaway.com (TKWY.AS), said: "Just Eat Takeaway.com (TKWY.AS) is now a faster growing, more profitable and predominantly European-based business.
"Prosus (PRX.AS) fully supports our strategic plans and its extensive resources will help to further accelerate our investments and growth across food, groceries, fintech and other adjacencies."
The companies said that they expect a settlement of the deal by the end of the year.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell (AJB.L), said: "Prosus (PRX.AS) has its fingers in many pies for the online food delivery sector, owning Brazilian platform iFood, and minority stakes in the likes of Delivery Hero, Meituan and Swiggy.
"Adding Just Eat to its stable would give Prosus (PRX.AS) a much stronger position in Europe and an opportunity to apply its technological advancements to a business that has found life a lot harder since the pandemic ended."
Germany's DAX (^GDAXI) index rose 0.9% on Monday morning, after the conservatives won the country's national election.
Friedrich Merz led a conservative alliance of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU) to win a 28.6% share of the vote in Germany. The far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party came second with 20.8% of the vote.
The CDU ruled out working in coalition with the AfD and will begin talks with the party of outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Social Democrats, who achieved 16.4% of the vote.
Auto makers were among the German stocks that rose on the back of the election result, including carmakers Porsche (P911.DE) and BMW (BMW.DE), which were up nearly 3% and 1.3% respectively.
Mould said: "How the market response develops will likely depend on whether his CDU party only needs one other coalition partner to achieve a majority — making for more stable government — or if it will need to rely on support from other parties to get policy changes through."
Other companies in the news on Monday 24 February:
