Live updates: Warren Buffett announces plan to step down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO

Warren Buffett dropped a bombshell at the end of the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting Saturday, saying he is ready at the end of the year to step aside as the CEO, with vice chairman Greg Abel taking over.

The 94-year-old said he would be proposing the plan to the conglomerate's 11-member board on Sunday morning, with the board making a final decision on the matter within a few months.

But he said he expected the board would unanimously approve the the new leadership atop the conglomerate he has led for more than half a century.

Buffett noted that even Abel, who was seated next to him, did not know the announcement was coming.

"The time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end," Buffett said to the stunned gathering of more than 17,000 shareholders, with Abel no doubt among those stunned.

"That's the news hook for the day," Buffett quipped. He received a sustained standing ovation after the announcement, getting laughs when he said, "That response can be interpreted in two ways."

Buffett said he would still be around to advise Abel on investment decisions, but he said it would ultimately be up to the 62-year-old Abel to make decisions on how capital will be allocated.

Buffett said when Abel takes over, "I would still hang around and could conceivably be useful in a few cases," especially if there were big investment opportunities, he said.

But he said Abel would have final say on both capital allocations and company operations. Buffett throughout the meeting Saturday expressed his confidence in Abel's ability to handle both of those roles when the time came.

Buffett presumably would remain chairman of Berkshire's board. He did not address that in his comments.

Buffett also said he would not be selling any of his shares of stock. He has previously said that upon his death, all of his holdings will go into a charitable trust under the control of his three children.

Buffett said only his son Howard and daughter Susie, who serve on Berkshire's board, knew of his plans going into the meeting Saturday. Susie told the World-Herald in a recent interview with the World-Herald that she and her brother have been seeking to get to know Abel better, apparently in preparation for Saturday's public announcement.

Buffett had revealed four years ago that Abel would be succeeding him as CEO upon his death. But Saturday's announcement represents a change in Buffett's thinking, likely due to his advancing age.

Buffett will be stepping aside as the nation's oldest corporate CEO.

Buffett has shown increasing accommodations to age in recent years. In 2018, he named Abel and Ajit Jain as vice chairmen to oversee the operations of Berkshire's subsidiary companies.

The news came as Berkshire Hathaway shareholders gathered in Omaha at the CHI Health Center Saturday morning for what's long been dubbed "Woodstock for Capitalists" — the conglomerate's annual meeting.

The impact of President Donald Trump's trade war with China, tariff policies and artificial intelligence were hot topics at the session.

This is Berkshire's second annual meeting since the 2023 death of Charlie Munger, Buffett's longtime right hand man and vice chairman.

DOGE efforts to cut spending needed, Buffett says

12:39 p.m.: While the activities of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency have raised questions, Buffett defended the overall goal of reining in the federal government bureaucracy. There doesn't tend to be much of a check on the size of the federal government, he said, and "they can print currency."

He called the current 7% gap between the federal government's revenues and expenditures unsustainable. Whether that's two years or 20 years, "it's something that cannot go on forever," he said. And if it isn't brought under control, he said, it risks rampant inflation.

"I think it's a job I don't want, but it's a job I think should be done, and Congress doesn't seem to be doing it," Buffett said.

Find your path, and look for the teachers

12:25 p.m.: Buffett got another chance to offer life advice when a 13-year-old boy from Tampa, Florida, attending his first annual meeting with his father and 15-year-old brother, asked what high school class or activity influenced his course.

Buffett said he would visit his father at lunch and read the investment books no one else wanted to read and he read every book on investments he could find at the Omaha Public Library, then at 19th and Harney Streets.

"They talked to me, numbers talked to me," he said.

But he also advised the young man to find his own path and to find the teachers, formal and informal, who were willing to take the time to nurture his interests.

Big problems will require big, but careful, investments

11:43 a.m.: When asked his views on capital allocation, Abel affirmed that Berkshire will continue the philosophy it has followed for the past 60 years.

Allocation of capital, he said, will be critical but with it comes the need to balance investments with risk.

But Buffett then noted that the country needs significant improvements that public-private cooperation may be necessary to address. "We're at that point, I think, in terms of energy," he said.

Abel noted there will be significant investment opportunities across a variety of industries. When it comes to the electric industry, the company already has significant experience.

"The capital required to meet the long term needs of what's currently projected as demand is enormous and we … will be in a good position to help address those needs," he said. "But the model around it and the risks that need to be addressed to deploy that type of capital will be different than they are today."

Self-driving cars will change insurance

11:15 a.m.: Ajit Jain said there is no question that autonomous self-driving vehicles will have a dramatic impact on Geico and other auto insurance carriers.

Policies that protect against operator error will instead provide product liability coverage, he said. And he said while there will be dramatically fewer accidents, the cost of such cars will make the crashes significantly more expensive.

Buffett noted that the business world often changes dramatically, pointing out that Berkshire has its roots in the failing New England textile industry.

"If the game didn't change it all, it wouldn't be very interesting," Buffett said.

On insurance, Buffett also noted how homeowners insurance prices in Nebraska have doubled because convective storms have "gone on a terror." But even with those increases, writing insurance still has not been profitable in the state.

"It's hard to predict what these changes mean," he said.

'Check your emotions at the door'

10:37 a.m.: Buffett downplayed the recent ups and downs in stock prices, saying it's just part of the stock market.

While there have recently been 15% swings, he noted that Berkshire's stock during past market shocks has three times been down more than 50%, even though there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the company. And the Dow Jones fell almost 90% during the Great Depression.

"This is not a huge move," he said of recent swings. "If it makes a difference to you whether your stocks are down 15% or not, you need a somewhat different investment philosophy... It's part of the stock market. That's what makes it a good place to focus your efforts if you have a temperament for it."

If you want to be a successful investor, Buffett said, "you need to check your emotions at the door."

Buffett: Find people who make you better

10 a.m.: A young woman from Massachusetts asked, as a young investor, what lessons Buffett learned early in life.

Buffett, known for dispensing such advice, noted that the people a person associates with make a difference in life.

"They're people who make you want to be better than you are and you want to hang out with people who are better than you are ... because you'll go in their direction," he said.

He said he also would try to associate with smart people, as he has done over the years, including the late Kiewit Corp. CEO Walter Scott and his longtime fellow investor Charlie Munger.

He also advised treating those friends well, "so you get a compounding of good intentions and good behavior."

He also recommended taking life lessons from them. "You'll learn how to be successful not only in business, you'll learn how to be successful in life," he said, adding a reference to his long-lived friends, "And apparently you'll live longer, too."

Ready to strike on next big investment

9:40 a.m.: With Berkshire sitting on more than $300 billion in cash, just when it may add another big company to its portfolio of subsidiaries is a constant question.

As always, Buffett urged patience. He said Berkshire should not spend down its pile of cash just to do something with the money. He said for Berkshire to arbitrarily invest $50 billion every year "would be the dumbest thing in the world."

He said he would prefer to wait for the right opportunity, no matter how long it takes.

"Very occasionally, but it will happen again, I don't know when, it could be next week, it could be five years off but it won't be 50 years off, we will be bombarded with offerings," he said.

Vice chairman Greg Abel stressed that people should not think Berkshire is not working to be prepared for the moment.

"While we are being patient, never underestimate the amount of reading and work that is being done to be prepared and to act quickly," Abel said.

Buffett in an aside also mentioned that Berkshire had a recent opportunity for a $10 billion acquisition, but it fell through. When asked later to detail what it was, he politely declined.

Incorporating artificial intelligence

9 a.m.: Buffett deferred to Ajit Jain, who leads Berkshire's insurance operations, when asked about how Berkshire is incorporating artificial intelligence into its insurance operations.

"There is no question in my mind AI is giong to be a real game changer," Jain said. But he said Berkshire is not investing heavily in development of the technology, saying it will be prepared to strike when the technology does emerge.

Buffett, who has long praised Jain, said he wouldn't trade Jain for anything that has been developed in AI.

Warren Buffett: Tariffs 'an act of war'

8:30 a.m.: Not surprisingly, Buffett was critical of the Trump administration's tariff policies, calling tariffs in general "an act of war."

He said the United States and all countries in the world benefit from free trade.

"We should be looking to trade with the rest of the world," he said to applause. "We should do what we do best and they should do what they do best."

And he said the United States also benefits from increased world security when all countries are benefitting from trade. He said with eight countries in the world possessing nuclear weapons, "I do not think it's a great idea to design a world where a few countries say 'ha-ha-ha we won and the other countries are envious.'"

Buffett opens meeting

8:10 a.m.: Buffett opened the meeting just after 8 a.m. to say the meeting — his 60th — is the biggest ever. He said more than 19,700 had stopped to shop at Berkshire exhibit booths on Friday, up from the previous year's record of 16,200.

He said it's impossible to know how many shareholders are attending overall, but he was speaking to a full house in the arena that holds some 17,000.

Buffett also pointed out that Tim Cook, the CEO of major Berkshire holding Apple, was also in attendance.

"I'm a little embarrassed to say Tim Cook has made Berkshire a lot more money than I ever did," he said.

Doors open, Hillary Clinton among attendees

7:53 a.m.: Per tradition, Pink Floyd's "Money" played as the doors to the CHI Health Center opened at 7 a.m. and shareholders began rushing to the best seats for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting Saturday. Within 15 minutes, all the seats on the floor were filled.

One person seated on the floor is Hillary Rodham Clinton, one reason there was more security than usual, including Secret Service, on hand.

Berkshire Hathaway first-quarter earnings

The annual meeting also coincided with the release of Berkshire's first-quarter earnings, which were down sharply from last year due to drops in the stock market and the impact of California wildfires on insurance results.

Earnings were $4.6 billion in the quarter compared to $12.7 billion a year ago. The biggest difference were the results from Berkshire's outside investments, which posted a $5 billion loss compared to $1.5 billion in gain last year. Earnings per Class A share were $3,200, down from $8,825.

Earnings from Berkshire's more than five dozen operating companies — what Buffett views as the true measure of Berkshire's performance due to the ups and downs of the stock market — were down slightly at $9.5 billion compared to $11.2 billion.

Insurance underwriting results were down $1.2 billion, deeply impacted by losses from the January wildfires that devastated Southern California.

Later, when Buffett and Abel dug into a bit more detail about Berkshire's first-quarter operating earnings, Buffett noted that the last quarter's results followed a year "was as good a year as you'll see in insurance."

Echoing the theme of ups and downs in the stock market, Abel said that of the 49 holdings the company measures closely, 21 were up and 28were down. "So you can tell it was really a mixed quarter when you go across the non-insurance operating businesses," he said.

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