Legendary investor Warren Buffett has announced that he will be stepping down from his role as Chief Executive at Berkshire Hathaway.
The 94-year-old had been speaking at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, when he made the announcement.
The shock announcement came only hours after he had warned about the dire global consequences of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Buffett, also known as The Oracle of Omaha, received a standing ovation from the crowd at the event after his announcement.
He said he will recommend to Berkshire Hathaway’s board that Greg Abel become CEO at the end of the year.
‘I think the time has arrived where Greg should become the Chief Executive Officer of the company at year end’, he told the gathering.
His announcement was a complete shock, he said that only those who knew were his two children, Howard and Susie Buffett, who sit on the board.
Abel, who was sitting beside Buffett on the stage, had no warning to the announcement.
Despite consistently stating that he had no intentions of retiring, Buffett changed his stance on Saturday. He mentioned that he would stick around to offer assistance but ultimately, the final decision-making would be in Abel’s hands.
Following the meeting, Buffett and Abel revealed to CNBC that they would be deciding on Sunday what Buffett’s official position within the company would entail. Currently, he holds the positions of CEO and chairman of the conglomerate.
Many investors have said they believe Abel will do a good job running Berkshire, but it remains to be seen how good he will be at investing Berkshire’s cash.
Buffett also endorsed him Saturday by pledging to keep his fortune invested in the company.
He added: ‘I have no intention – zero – of selling one share of Berkshire Hathaway. I will give it away eventually.
‘The decision to keep every share is an economic decision because I think the prospects of Berkshire will be better under Greg’s management than mine.’
Abel has been Buffett’s designated successor for years, and he already manages all of Berkshire’s noninsurance businesses.
But it was always assumed he wouldn’t take over until after Buffett’s death.
Prior to the announcement, Buffett had warned those that gathered that Trump policies had raised the risk of global instability.
He told the meeting that ‘trade should not be a weapon’, and ‘there’s no question that trade can be an act of war’.
Buffett said: ‘It’s a big mistake in my view when you have 7.5 billion people who don´t like you very well, and you have 300 million who are crowing about how they have done.’
While Buffett said it is best for trade to be balanced between countries, he doesn’t think Trump is going about it the right way with his widespread tariffs.
‘We should be looking to trade with the rest of the world. We should do what we do best and they should do what they do best,’ he said.
Buffett, a father of three, is one of the richest men in the world with a personal fortune estimated at around $168 billion, according to Forbes.
Despite his huge wealth, he has always said that he would not be leaving his large fortune to his children, but instead will give away 99 percent of the money.
He had previously said: ‘I’ve never wished to create a dynasty or pursue any plan that extended beyond the children.
‘I know the three well and trust them completely. Future generations are another matter.
‘Who can foresee the priorities, intelligence and fidelity of successive generations to deal with the distribution of extraordinary wealth amid what may be a far different philanthropic landscape?’
The investor has long promoted a straightforward metric known as the Buffett Indicator.
The indicator measures the total value of the US stock market against the country’s gross domestic product, or GDP.
In other words, it compares what investors are willing to pay for companies to the actual amount of money sloshing through the US economy.
When the ratio rises well above 1, it can signal that investors are getting overly greedy. When it falls closer to or below 1, it can suggest that fear is running the show.
Last week, the Buffett Indicator was sitting at more than 1.6 — a level that suggests markets are extremely overheated relative to the economy underneath them.
Buffett’s own moves appear to reflect that wariness. Rather than diving headfirst into the market, he has been steadily building a mountain of cash.
At the end of 2024, Berkshire Hathaway reported $334 billion in cash on hand — more than triple what it held just two years earlier.
He has not stopped investing altogether, but the moves he has made show a cautious eye on global opportunities.
Buffett invested in a trading house of Japanese manufacturers, put $1.2 billion into a Mexican beer and liquor brand, and even snapped up stocks of a satellite radio technology company.
Back in 2009, when the market bottomed out and the Buffett Indicator plunged to under 0.6, he scooped up stocks in industries that looked boring but were built to endure.
As well as his knowledge of the markets, Buffett is also known for his incessant consumption of Coca-Cola, previously admitting a quarter of his calorie consumption comes from the drink.
He is partial to both the regular and cherry coke varieties, which give him the necessary energy boosts as he doesn’t drink coffee.
Buffett is well known for his decadent diet. As well as junk food, he says he is partial to Dairy Queen ice cream for dessert.
His meals include so much salt that Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf told Bloomberg in 2014 that, ‘When the food comes, Warren grabs a salt shaker in his left hand and one in his right, and it’s a snowstorm.’
Despite his high-sugar, high-salt diet, he has never touched alcohol.
Buffett was born in Nebraska in August of 1930 and previously said that he filed his first tax return at the age of 13, claiming a $35 deduction for his bicycle.
After studying at the Columbia Business School in New York he began purchasing shares in the textile firm Berkshire Hathaway in 1962. He then bought a controlling stake in 1965.
He, along with longtime associate Charlie Munger, would take the company and make it the trillion dollar powerhouse it is today.
Munger died in 2023 at the age of 99, he had served as Buffett’s sounding board on investments and business decisions and helped lead Berkshire as its vice chairman since 1978.
