With billionaire Warren Buffett stepping down from his role as chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of 2025, he’ll relinquish control of a company he’s led for six decades.
Buffett, 94, made the announcement during Berkshire’s annual meeting on May 3, adding that he’ll hand over the reins to vice chairman Greg Abel.
“I think the time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive of the company at year end,” Buffett said at the Saturday meeting. Although he won’t be a part of the holding company’s day-to-day operations, Buffett said he has “zero” intention of selling any of his Berkshire stock.
After springing the announcement he told CNBC’s Becky Quick “he still plans to go into the office every day.”
Buffett began buying shares of Berkshire in 1962, which led to him acquiring a majority stake and eventually taking control of the once-failing textile company, according to CNBC’s bio of the billionaire.
Although the announcement came as a surprise, even to Abel, who Buffett said had no prior knowledge of his plans, the businessman and investor noted that his children are aware of his decision.
Here is what to know about Buffett following the news of his soon-to-be departure.
Warren Buffett: The Oracle of Omaha, a life in photos
Renowned as an immensely successful investor with an estimated real time net worth of more than $160 billion – nicknamed “the Oracle of Omaha” – Buffett has come a long way from growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, with his two siblings, mother and father, a former congressman, according to his CNBC bio.
Buffett’s father, Howard Buffett, was in the investment business and served on the Omaha school board before being elected to Congress in 1942 as a Republican, the bio reads.
It didn’t take long for Buffett to follow in his father’s footsteps because by age 11, he had already purchased his first stock, three shares of Cities Service preferred at $38 per share. When the stock plunged and then increased to $40, Buffett sold his holdings, only to later see it surge, according to the CNBC bio.
Since then, Buffett applied the lessons learned from his first investment, his bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Nebraska and the teachings of value-investing guru Benjamin Graham to create an empire.
“Warren Buffett’s enormous financial success, along with his middle-American common sense, modest lifestyle and self-deprecating sense of humor, have helped make him one of the world’s most famous, and admired, billionaires,” his CNBC bio reads.
Buffett has primarily amassed his fortune through Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio of investments, which includes 44 different publicly traded stocks and dozens of private companies and nonmarketable securities, The Motley Fool, a Virginia-based private financial and investing advice company, reported in March.
Throughout his financial career, Buffett and his late Berkshire business partner, Charlie Munger, invested in a multiplicity of businesses and ventures including Coca-Cola, Heinz ketchup, IBM computers, Dairy Queen, Duracell, insurance companies, media companies, railroads and real estate, according to his CNBC bio.
While Buffett’s and Berkshire’s portfolio can be considered diversified, of the roughly $283 billion the company currently holds in publicly traded equities, 47% of it is centered around three stocks, according to The Motley Fool. Apple (22.7%), American Express (14.3%) and Bank of America (10.1%) are all big winners for Berkshire and are being heavily invested in by the holding company.
In 2024, Berkshire reached a $1 trillion market value, making it the first U.S. company outside of tech to do so.
In 2010, Buffett and fellow billionaire Bill Gates founded The Giving Pledge to encourage wealthy people to donate half their net worth to charity. Following the creation of the campaign, Buffett promised to pledge 99% of his fortune to philanthropy.
“Were we to use more than 1% of my claim checks (Berkshire Hathaway stock certificates) on ourselves, neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast, that remaining 99% can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others,” Buffett said, per The Giving Pledge’s website.
Buffett attributed his wealth to “a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest,” according to his bio on the campaign’s website.
“My luck was accentuated by my living in a market system that sometimes produces distorted results, though overall it serves our country well,” Buffett said, per the bio. “I’ve worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions. In short, fate’s distribution of long straws is wildly capricious.”
It is unclear what Buffett will do next, but it may include enjoying time with his family and his wife of nearly 20 years, Astrid Menks. The two met following Buffett’s separation from his previous wife, Susie Thompson.
“She takes care of me, it’s terrific,” Buffett told interviewer Charlie Rose about his wife in 2007. “You couldn’t find a better person in the world.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What to know about Warren Buffett, the exiting Berkshire Hathaway CEO
