Then-Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett walks through the exhibit hall as shareholders gather to hear from him at the company's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha on May 4, 2019. Scott Morgan / REUTERS

Warren Buffett is stepping aside as Berkshire Hathaway chairman, he announced in a letter to shareholders Friday.

The 96-year-old billionaire and legendary investor will become chairman emeritus and stay on the company's board of directors, Berkshire said.

Buffett's son, Howard Buffett, will become Berkshire's new chairman under terms of a longstanding successor plan, the company said. Buffett noted in the letter that his son has served as a Berkshire director for 33 years.

"Father Time always wins," Buffett wrote in the letter. "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. The company is in excellent hands, and I look forward to remaining a shareholder alongside you."

Buffett's move came several months after he stepped down as Berkshire CEO and handed the reins of the multinational conglomerate to his handpicked successor, Greg Abel, who is now 64.

Investor Adam Mead, who wrote "The Complete Financial History of Berkshire Hathaway," said Buffett seems to be moving to cushion the impact on Berkshire when he eventually dies. Berkshire's announcement didn't reveal any health issues for Buffett, but "he's now 96, so even a cold could be a health scare," Mead said.

5,500,000% gain
Buffett spent six decades transforming a struggling textile manufacturer into one of the world's most successful companies, cementing his reputation as one of the world's savviest investors. Shares of Berkshire Hathaway gained more than 5,500,000% from 1965 through 2024, compared with an over 39,000% gain in the S&P 500 during the same period, according to Buffett's final annual letter to shareholders in 2025.

In 2024, Berkshire became the first non-technology company to be valued at more than $1 trillion.

Each year, Berkshire Hathaway investors flock to the company's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha to hear Buffett's remarks. Known as the "Oracle of Omaha" for his investing prowess and his devotion to his Nebraska hometown, Buffett built a personal fortune of $145 billion, making him the 10th richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

As Berkshire's CEO, Abel has been tasked with upholding its decentralized model — one of the company's hallmarks — while guiding it into a new era of growth.

In recent years, that growth has slowed as the company has ballooned in size, making it harder to find large, meaningful acquisition targets.

Succession
Buffett tapped Abel as his successor as CEO in May 2025, saying at the time that he planned to step down as CEO. At the time, the move surprised many investors, as it was widely assumed Abel would not take over until after Buffett's death.

"Warren Buffett approached succession the same way he has always approached investing," Michael Winters, professor of management at the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, said in an email. "Rather than leaving Berkshire's future to a single decision or a moment of crisis, he laid out the pieces of his succession plan years in advance and has carried out the transition step by step."

In his letter on Friday, Buffett said he decided to step down as chairman partly due to Abel's leadership.

"My expectations for him were sky high from the start, and he has exceeded them. He has taken hold of the Chief Executive Officer job in every respect," Buffett wrote. "He has been making the decisions that matter for some time now, and I have not had to think twice about any of them."

In his own statement, Abel said that "Warren's impact on Berkshire and its owners is without parallel in the history of American business."

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