Warren Buffett, the investor who turned a struggling textile company into a conglomerate worth about $1 trillion, has stepped down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. The 96-year-old announced the move in a letter to shareholders on Friday 18 September. The company said he becomes chairman emeritus with immediate effect and remains a member of the board.
His son Howard Buffett takes over as chairman, as set out in a succession plan the company has had in place for years. Susan Decker will continue as lead independent director. In his letter, Buffett wrote simply that “Father Time always wins”, adding that time has at least been generous to him, and that he is more confident than ever about what lies ahead for Berkshire.
Who does what now
The announcement changes titles more than it changes how the company runs. Greg Abel, who took over as chief executive a little more than nine months ago, is in charge of operations and capital allocation. Buffett described the division of labour in a line CNBC quoted: Abel runs the company, and Howard will guard its culture and values. Abel said the culture Warren built will stay at the heart of the group and that Howard will be its guardian.
Buffett first said he would give up the CEO role at Berkshire’s annual meeting in May 2025, surprising the thousands of shareholders present. He kept the chairmanship until now. CNBC reported that Abel said in March that Buffett was still coming into the Omaha office every day and that they spoke frequently.
A record that is hard to match
- 1965Year Buffett took control of Berkshire
- 19.7%Compounded annual return under his leadership, nearly double the S&P 500’s
- $44.5bnOperating earnings last year
- ~400,000Employees across the group
Buffett took over Berkshire in 1965, when it was a failing New England textile mill, and built it into a group of insurers, railroads, utilities, manufacturers and consumer brands alongside a huge portfolio of publicly traded shares. Over that time, according to CNBC, shareholders earned a compound annual return of 19.7%, nearly twice that of the S&P 500 index.
The test for the new leadership
Berkshire’s share price has lagged this year. It is up about 1% in 2026, while the S&P 500 has gained more than 11%, CNBC reported. Rising oil prices and investors’ preference for faster-growing parts of the market are partly to blame, but shareholders are also waiting to see whether Abel can allocate the group’s capital as skilfully as Buffett did.
The cash pile is one of the main points of focus. Berkshire holds $365.5 billion, and investors would welcome more share buybacks; Abel raised repurchases to $4.5 billion in the second quarter. Buffett also told CNBC in July that he was the driving force behind Berkshire’s recent investment in Alphabet, a $10 billion private stock purchase in June that made Google’s parent the group’s third-largest stock holding behind Apple and American Express.
What changes for shareholders
In practical terms, very little changes on Monday. Buffett remains Berkshire’s largest shareholder and stays on the board, Abel continues to run the business, and the company’s decentralised structure is intact. What has changed is the symbolism: for the first time in more than six decades, Berkshire is not chaired by Warren Buffett.
