Warren Buffett to step down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO by year’s end, leaving Greg Abel in charge

Warren Buffett told thousands of shareholders in Omaha that he’s done being CEO of Berkshire Hathaway by the end of 2025. He said it straight to a packed arena that gave him a standing ovation.

Warren has been running the company for 55 years, longer than any other chief executive of a S&P 500 company. He said it’s time. The board will now prepare to appoint Greg Abel as the next CEO.

Warren confirmed that he will stay close and “hang around,” but Abel will be the one making final decisions. Warren will not sell his shares. He said that keeping all his shares is not emotional, it’s because he believes Berkshire will actually perform better under Greg’s management.

“The decision to keep every share is an economic decision because I think the prospects of Berkshire will be better under Greg’s management than mine,” Warren said.

Buffett and Abel meet board to decide future roles

Warren and Greg told Becky Quick from CNBC after the meeting that the company’s board will meet on Sunday to figure out what Warren’s formal role will be. Right now, Warren is still both chairman and CEO. Whether Greg gets both titles or just CEO is still up in the air.

Warren made all of this official during Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting, which drew around 40,000 people. The event also marked his 60th year leading the company. Hillary Clinton was in attendance. Warren didn’t endorse anyone in politics after her. He stopped doing that in recent years to avoid harming Berkshire’s businesses with controversy.

At the same meeting, Warren didn’t hold back when asked about President Donald Trump’s trade policies. He warned the crowd that using trade as a weapon could bring real global consequences. “Trade should not be a weapon,” Warren said. “There’s no question that trade can be an act of war.”

He said Trump’s heavy use of tariffs has made other countries angry, and that could create instability. Warren put it this way: “It’s a big mistake in my view when you have 7.5 billion people who don’t like you very well, and you have 300 million who are crowing about how they have done.”

He said countries should be focused on doing what they’re best at and trading freely. “We should be looking to trade with the rest of the world. We should do what we do best and they should do what they do best,” he told the crowd. He also said the world becomes safer when more countries are prosperous.

Berkshire holds cash as Buffett waits for right price

Warren told shareholders that Berkshire Hathaway is currently sitting on $347.7 billion in cash. He said he doesn’t see many investments he understands or finds attractive right now. So the company is holding the money.

But he believes a time will come when that cash will be needed. He said when that time comes, Berkshire will be “bombarded with opportunities that we will be glad we have the cash for.”

Warren also spoke about the country’s long history of change. He said the United States has gone through many revolutions since its beginning, and while equality didn’t come early, he remains optimistic about the country’s future. “If I were being born today, I would just keep negotiating in the womb until they said, ‘You could be in the United States,’” Warren said.

When it comes to Greg Abel, shareholders didn’t seem worried. Steven Check, who runs Check Capital Management, said Greg is already proven. He said the businesses under Berkshire’s umbrella mostly run on their own and Greg won’t get in their way.

“I think we’ll get a more hands-on manager and that could be a good thing,” Steven said. “But he also knows that those managers enjoy the freedom to run their businesses and Abel isn’t going to do anything to turn them off.”

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