Warren Buffett Steps Down as Berkshire Hathaway Chairman After Six Decades

Warren Buffett, 96, stepped down Friday as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, completing a leadership transition the company had been preparing for years.

Buffett will hold the honorary title of chairman emeritus and keep a seat on Berkshire's board, where the company said he would continue to contribute his "valued judgment and perspective." His son Howard Buffett, a board member since 1993, becomes non-executive chairman. Greg Abel, who became chief executive nine months ago, remains in charge of day-to-day management and capital allocation.

"Father Time always wins. He has, however, been generous with me," Buffett wrote in a letter to shareholders Friday, noting he had recently celebrated his 96th birthday.

Buffett took control of Berkshire in 1965, when it was a struggling New England textile maker. Over six decades he built it into a $1.1 trillion conglomerate with holdings from GEICO and BNSF railroad to Dairy Queen, plus major equity stakes in companies such as Apple and Coca-Cola. His approach — buying solid businesses at reasonable prices and holding them — shaped generations of investors. His annual shareholder meetings became a ritual draw for the financial world.

Howard Buffett, known as Howie, is a former farmer, philanthropist and county sheriff. Unlike his father or Abel, he will have no operational duties. Berkshire said his main job as chairman is to safeguard the firm's culture and values — what Abel on Friday called "the heart of Berkshire."

Buffett first signaled he would step back in May 2025. The CEO handoff to Abel proceeded on that schedule. Friday's announcement is the final formal milestone in what Berkshire described as a deliberate, phased transition.

"It was always a matter of when, not if," said Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management. "Berkshire has had years to prepare for this transition, so this feels more like the completion of a carefully planned succession than a sudden changing of the guard."

Among financial companies, Berkshire stands alone in the trillion-dollar market-capitalization tier otherwise filled mostly by technology giants. Its Class B shares slipped 0.3 percent in premarket trading Friday. For years, investors had attributed part of the company's valuation to what market observers called the "Buffett premium."

In its most recent earnings release, Berkshire reported second-quarter operating profit of $12.98 billion, up 16 percent from a year earlier and above analyst expectations.