Business magnate Warren Buffett announced Saturday he would be stepping down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway after six decades of leading the trillion-dollar holding company.
Buffett, 94, revealed the news during an annual shareholder meeting where he formally named Vice Chairman Greg Abel as his successor. Often viewed as the world’s top investor, Buffett said he planned to ask his board at the year’s end to make Abel Berkshire’s CEO.
“I think the time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive of the company at year-end,” Buffett said at the shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
Since taking over Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, Buffett has built it into a company worth roughly $1.2 trillion. The investor received a multi-minute standing ovation from an audience of roughly 40,000 on Saturday in honor of his decades at the company.
Named by Forbes this month as the world’s fifth richest person, Buffett holds an estimated net worth of more than $160 billion and has pledged to give away 99% of his fortune when he dies. Berkshire Hathaway owns a diverse array of companies, including Geico, Fruit of the Loom, and Dairy Queen. Buffett’s holding enterprise also retains major stakes in U.S. corporate giants such as Apple, American Express, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, and Chevron.
Buffett reiterated over the weekend that he does not intend to sell his shares in the company for a profit.
“I have no intention, zero, of selling one share of Berkshire Hathaway. It will get given away,” he said, as the crowd cheered.
Apple CEO Tim Cook was among the business leaders who praised Buffett after the Saturday announcement.
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“There’s never been someone like Warren, and countless people, myself included, have been inspired by his wisdom,” he wrote in a post to X. “It’s been one of the great privileges of my life to know him. And there’s no question that Warren is leaving Berkshire in great hands with Greg.”
Buffett’s son Howard is expected to be the next non-executive chairman after his father.
