Warren Buffett Steps Down as Berkshire Hathaway Chairman

Warren Buffett, 96, is stepping down as Berkshire Hathaway chairman after more than five decades, becoming chairman emeritus as his son Howard takes over.

Warren Buffett announced Friday that he is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, the role he has held since 1970. The 96-year-old investor will become chairman emeritus, effective immediately, and will remain a member of the company's board of directors. His son, Howard Buffett, a board member since 1993, will take over as chairman. The move comes just eight months after Buffett handed the CEO role to his longtime lieutenant Greg Abel at the end of last year, when the company had said Buffett planned to keep the chairman title. Berkshire said in a statement that as chairman emeritus, Buffett 'will continue to offer his valued judgment and perspective.'

Buffett wrote in a letter to shareholders Friday that he is stepping aside partly because CEO Greg Abel has exceeded his expectations, while also acknowledging his age, noting his one-year-old great-grandson is 'moving a bit faster than I am these days.' 'Father Time always wins,' Buffett wrote. 'He has, however, been generous with me. He has given me the opportunity to see Berkshire reach a point where I am more confident than ever about what lies ahead.' Markets barely reacted: CNBC reports Berkshire shares were little changed on the news, and stock futures were little changed overall Friday morning.

Under Buffett's leadership, Berkshire Hathaway compounded at a 19.7% annual return to shareholders, almost double the S&P 500's performance over the same span, according to CNBC. NBC News reports that from when Buffett took Berkshire as his primary investment vehicle in the 1960s, the share price rose more than 5,500,000% by his CEO retirement, versus roughly 39,000% for the S&P 500. The 'Oracle of Omaha' built Berkshire into a trillion-dollar conglomerate owning insurer GEICO, the BNSF railroad, Fruit of the Loom, Benjamin Moore, Duracell and Dairy Queen, and ranks as the world's 10th richest person with a net worth of about $145 billion, per CNN's Bloomberg Billionaires Index citation.

Greg Abel, who succeeded Buffett as CEO late last year, praised his predecessor's legacy in a statement Friday: 'Warren's impact on Berkshire and its owners is without parallel in the history of American business. The culture Warren built and the values he championed will remain at the heart of Berkshire, and Howard will be their guardian.' NPR reports that Abel's statement framed Howard Buffett's chairman role explicitly as guardianship of the culture and values Warren created. Buffett remained an active investor even in recent months — in July, he told CNBC he had initiated a Berkshire investment in Alphabet, calling his delay a 'made a mistake' moment on the tech giant.

The transition consolidates a new leadership structure at one of the world's most valuable companies, with Greg Abel running operations as CEO and Howard Buffett now chairing the board while his father stays on as a director and chairman emeritus. Buffett has still appeared publicly in recent months, including CNBC interviews as recently as July, though NBC News observed his voice had sounded weak of late. Berkshire's household-name holdings — from GEICO and BNSF to Dairy Queen and Duracell — sit at what NBC News calls the intersection of Wall Street and Main Street, so continuity of Buffett's culture and capital-allocation discipline is the central question for investors watching the post-Buffett era begin.

Buffett will remain on the board and available as chairman emeritus while Howard Buffett, a director since 1993, assumes the chairman post, the company said Friday. Attention now shifts to how the Abel-Howard structure performs without Warren's day-to-day presence, and to his philanthropic legacy: CNN reports Buffett's will stipulates more than 99% of his wealth will go to charity, with donations already totaling $60 billion, though he said earlier this year he had stopped giving Berkshire shares to the Gates Foundation. For now, the market's muted reaction suggests investors see the handoff as the orderly continuation of a succession Buffett himself set in motion.