Overview
- Greg Abel will become Berkshire Hathaway's chief executive in January 2026, with Warren Buffett staying on as chairman.
- Buffett converted 1,800 Class A shares into 2.7 million Class B shares, worth about $1.3 billion, and donated them to four family foundations, including 1.5 million shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation.
- He said he will accelerate lifetime gifts to his children's foundations so they can distribute most of his fortune, and he has named potential successor trustees for a charitable trust.
- Buffett will retain a significant Berkshire stake to reassure shareholders and will continue a yearly Thanksgiving note, while ending his annual report letter and his Q&A role at the shareholder meeting.
- He cautioned that Berkshire's size will make outperformance harder in coming decades, and the stock has trailed broader indexes since his May retirement announcement.