Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway chairman at 96

A long-planned departure

Warren Buffett is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, handing the role to his son Howard and completing a long-foreseen leadership transition at the $1.1 trillion company.

The 96-year-old investor will not leave the company entirely. He is moving into an advisory role as chairman emeritus and will remain on the board as a director. The shift leaves the day-to-day chairmanship to Howard Buffett, 71, who has served as a Berkshire director since 1993.

The transition follows Buffett's earlier decision to step down as chief executive, a role now held by Greg Abel, who oversees corporate strategy and capital decisions.

"Serving as your chairman has been the privilege of a lifetime, and I have never taken your trust for granted," Buffett wrote in a letter to shareholders on Friday. Reflecting on his age, he noted that he had recently celebrated his 96th birthday alongside the first birthday of a great-grandchild, who is "moving a bit faster than I am these days."

"Father Time always wins," Buffett added. "He has, however, been generous with me."

Guarding the culture

Howard Buffett's primary responsibility as non-executive chairman will be to preserve the distinctive corporate culture his father built over six decades. A former farmer, philanthropist, and sheriff, the younger Buffett is not expected to run the investment side of the business.

In a statement, Chief Executive Greg Abel praised the elder Buffett’s impact on American business, calling it "without parallel". "The culture Warren built and the values he championed will remain at the heart of Berkshire, and Howard will be their guardian," Abel said.

The appointment of Howard has been planned for years, though Warren Buffett has openly acknowledged its dynastic nature. "He is getting it because he’s my son," Buffett told the Wall Street Journal in January 2025. "I’m very, very, very lucky in the fact that I trust all three of my children."

The Oracle's legacy

Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, when it was a struggling New England textile mill. By championing "value investing"—the practice of buying fundamentally strong companies at reasonable prices and holding them for decades—he transformed it into one of the world's largest conglomerates.

Today, Berkshire owns major brands including Geico insurance, Dairy Queen, and the BNSF railway system. It also holds massive investment stakes in tech and consumer giants, including Apple, Coca-Cola, Nvidia, and Amazon.

According to calculations by Bloomberg, Buffett's personal net worth stands at $145 billion, making him the world's tenth-richest person. Despite his vast wealth, he remains famously associated with simple tastes, such as his well-known habit of drinking five cans of Coca-Cola a day.

While day-to-day corporate strategy has already transitioned to Abel, the formal end of Warren Buffett's chairmanship marks the close of an era for the global financial markets that looked to his annual shareholder letters and Omaha meetings for guidance.