Warren Buffett stepping aside as Berkshire Hathaway chairman

Warren Buffett, the world's most famous investor, has announced his final departure and ceded the presidency of Berkshire Hathaway. The 96-year-old philanthropist has communicated that he is stepping down as president of the conglomerate with immediate effect, a definitive goodbye that comes just a year and a half after he relinquished his executive role.

In a letter to shareholders, the 96-year-old investor wrote, "The sands of time always shift. Nevertheless, I have been generous to you." The oracle of Omaha, Nebraska, where the company's headquarters resides, will now operate as an emeritus president. His son, Howard, 71, who has been a director of Berkshire since 1993, will become the new president.

In his own words, the billionaire investor sought to clarify Berkshire Hathaway's future to the company's shareholders: "Greg drives the enterprise; Howard will safeguard its culture and values, which are worth more than any figure on our balance sheet." The investor shocked the market in May 2025 when he announced his departure from the top executive position, a decision that came into fruition in January of this year.

Buffett revealed then that he was unaware of his successor, Greg Abel, who was seated beside him during the company's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha. "As an emeritus president, Mr. Buffett will remain a member of the board of directors and continue to offer his invaluable judgment and perspective," the company stated in a press release.

Abel highlighted that "Warren's impact on Berkshire and its shareholders is unparalleled in the history of American business." The current CEO of the group emphasized that "the culture Warren built and the values he championed will remain at the heart of Berkshire, and Howard will be his guardian." After 60 years at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway, which he acquired in 1965 when it was on the brink of bankruptcy, Buffett opted to hand over the reins of the company to Abel, who had already been designated his successor and served as vice president of operations, with direct responsibility for all businesses of the group, except for insurance.

As the world's most iconic investor, Buffett's value investing style has garnered a legion of followers who flock to the company's shareholder meetings to scrutinize his speeches. His value investing methodology, which seeks undervalued companies for long-term ownership, has been replicated by numerous fund managers and investors over the past decades and is popular among investors in Spain.

Alongside his constant companion, Charlie Munger, Buffett faced his legion of followers in marathon shareholder meetings, which have more in common with rock concerts. Their speeches and letters to investors, dissected to the point of saturation by the investors, have inspired great reflection on financial bubbles or cryptoassets.

In 2012, he assured that "in the last 15 years, both internet stocks and the real estate sector have demonstrated the extraordinary excesses that can be created by combining an initially sensible thesis with prices that have risen very conveniently. In these bubbles, an army of initially skeptical investors succumbed to the market's test, and the number of buyers expanded enough to keep the momentum going.

But bubbles that grow too much inevitably burst. And then the old adage is confirmed once again: what the wise does at the beginning, the fool does at the end." As of this year, with Abel at the helm, Berkshire Hathaway's most relevant transaction was the Alphabet stock placement in June, worth a total of $80 billion (around €68.75 billion).

The holding's participation amounted to approximately $10 billion. A shift in Berkshire Hathaway's roadmap became evident in the first half of the year, where the holding ended a more than three-year disinvestment streak and made purchases worth almost $20 billion, including the Google subsidiary deal. The decision not to make large purchases in recent years had brought Berkshire Hathaway's vast cash reserve close to $400 billion. As of June 30, cash reserves stood at $365 billion.