Warren Buffett will step down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, the growing $1 trillion conglomerate he has led since 1965. The 96-year-old legendary investor announced the move in a letter to shareholders on Friday. Buffett will become chairman emeritus, effective immediately, and will remain a board director, the company said in a separate announcement. His son, Howard Buffett, will replace him as chairman as dictated by a long-standing succession plan, Berkshire said. Susan Decker will continue as lead independent director. “Father Time always wins,” Buffett wrote. “However, he has been generous to me. He has given me the opportunity to see Berkshire get to a point where I am more confident than ever in what lies ahead.” His decision comes a little more than nine months after Greg Abel, 64, took over as CEO while Buffett retained the presidency. Buffett first announced his departure as CEO at Berkshire’s annual meeting in May 2025, surprising the crowd of thousands at the time despite his advanced age. “The culture Warren built and the values she championed will remain at the heart of Berkshire, and Howard will be its guardian,” Abel said in the company statement. “Greg runs the company; Howard will protect its culture and values, both of which are worth more than anything else on our balance sheet,” Buffett wrote. “Think of Howard as a policy that shareholders own and hope to never complain against.” Buffett’s legacy in building Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire is unmatched in corporate America: He took over a failing New England textile mill at the tender age of 34 and transformed it over the next six decades into a financial and industrial giant with $44.5 billion in operating profits last year and nearly 400,000 employees. Berkshire, under Buffett, posted a 19.7% compound annual return to shareholders, nearly double the return of the S&P 500. Active Chairman As chairman this year, Buffett remained active within the company. Abel told CNBC in March that Buffett still went to the Omaha office every day and that the CEO still consulted with him frequently. In May, Buffett attended the company’s celebrated annual meeting, gave brief remarks from his seat, and gave an interview to CNBC’s Becky Quick. It was the first “Woodstock for capitalists” (as the meeting became known) chaired not by Buffett, but by Abel. Google parent is now Berkshire’s third-largest shareholding behind Apple and American Express after a $10 billion private share purchase in June. In that same interview, Buffett noted that he had broken his leg a few weeks ago but was recovering. Buffett acknowledged his increasing limitations due to his age as he prepared to hand the reins to Abel last year. In a Thanksgiving letter to shareholders, he wrote: “To my surprise, I feel generally well. Although I move slowly and read with increasing difficulty, I am in the office five days a week.” In Friday’s letter, Buffett joked about it. “I recently celebrated my 96th birthday with family and friends, including one of my great-grandsons who had just turned one. He’s moving a little faster than me these days,” she wrote. The stock has struggled this year, and Buffett’s departure as chairman raises the stakes for Abel to do even better. The stock is up just 1% in 2026 as the S&P 500 is up more than 11%. 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 the new CEO can be as adept as Buffett in deploying the company’s considerable capital. For now, investors would probably be happy with Abel using some more of the company’s $365.5 billion cash hoard to buy back more Berkshire shares. It has begun to do just that, increasing buybacks to $4.5 billion in the second quarter. Berkshire’s largest shareholder praised Abel’s work so far in his Friday letter: “My expectations for him were sky-high from the beginning and he has exceeded them.” “The company is in excellent hands and I look forward to remaining a shareholder with you,” Buffett said in conclusion. When contacted by CNBC for comment, Abel said: “Warren described in his letter today how his role at Berkshire has been ‘the best job in the world.’ It gave me extraordinary responsibility (the best job in American business) and then the freedom to lead in a way consistent with Berkshire’s culture and values. I look forward to continuing to work alongside Warren, with Howard as Chairman and Sue as Lead Independent Director, and I am grateful for that opportunity.”
