“Oracle of Omaha” surprises shareholders, but promises to maintain investment in the group, and he says he’s still “wandering around.”
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett announced he will retire from leading Berkshire Hathaway Business Group at the end of the year.
The buffet told the group’s annual shareholders meeting on Saturday that it would hand over the reins to Vice Chairman Greg Abel, who resigned as chief executive at the end of 2025 and is already known as his anointed successor.
“I’m still hanging out and maybe in some cases it could be thought of, but the last thing that was said, Greg said, in the operation, in capital development, whatever it was,” Buffett said at a meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
He added that the board would “unanimously put his recommendations in an advantageous position.”
About an hour later Abel came out to oversee the formal Berkshire business meeting without Buffett. “I just want to say that as we moved forward, we couldn’t be humbled and honored to be part of Berkshire,” he said.
Abel, 62, who has been the group’s vice-president since 2018 and manages the uninsured business, was appointed as the expected successor to Buffett in 2021, but was always assumed not to take over until after Buffett’s death.
Previously, 94-year-old Buffett, known as the “Omaha Oracle” because of his impact in the business and financial world, has always maintained that he has no plans to retire.
His decision to step down a surprising 60-year run, during which he transformed Berkshire from a failed textile company into a $1.16 trillion conglomerate containing $300 million in liquid assets.
Buffett’s net worth was $168.2 billion on Saturday, according to Forbes Magazine’s real-time rich list. On Saturday, he promised to continue investing his wealth in the company.
“I’m not going to sell a single share of Berkshire Hathaway, and I’ll give it to you in the end,” Buffett said.
“The decision to maintain all share is an economic decision because I think Berkshire’s outlook is better under Greg’s management than mine,” he said.
Earlier on Saturday, Buffett warned of the dire global consequences of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, saying “trade should not be a weapon,” but “there is no doubt that trade could become an act of war.”
Buffett said Trump’s trade policy has increased the risk of global instability by angering other parts of the world.