Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway at a glance

By Jonathan Stempel – May 3, 2025 -5:10 AM CDT Updated May 3, 2025 – Reuters

OMAHA, Nebraska, May 3 (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of people are in Omaha, Nebraska, to attend the annual shareholder weekend for billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), opens new tab.

Buffett, 94, is expected to answer shareholder questions over four and a half hours at Berkshire’s annual meeting on Saturday.

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Vice Chairman Greg Abel, 62, who is expected to succeed Buffett as chief executive, will join him. Vice Chairman Ajit Jain, 73, will join for two and a half hours.

The meeting will be broadcast on CNBC and livestreamed on cnbc.com.

Here are some facts about Buffett and Berkshire.

BUFFETT’S LIFE

*Personal life

Warren Edward Buffett was born on August 30, 1930, in Omaha. He attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Columbia Business School.

Buffett has been married to Astrid Menks since 2006. His first wife Susan Thompson Buffett died in 2004, and he had three children with her: Susan, Howard and Peter. Susan Buffett and Howard Buffett are Berkshire directors.

My cmnt: It s/b noted that Warren and Susan had NOT lived together for decades while he and Astrid did.

Buffett likes steaks and enjoys candies from See’s, which Berkshire owns. He estimates that one-fourth of his calories come from Coca-Cola, a longtime Berkshire investment.

*Net worth

$168.2 billion as of May 2, ranking fifth worldwide, according to Forbes. Elon Musk, the head of Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab and adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, ranked first.

Buffett owned 14.4% of Berkshire and held a 30.4% voting stake in the company as of March 5.

*How Buffett took charge of Berkshire

In 1965, Buffett was a shareholder in Berkshire, then a struggling New England textile company. He agreed to sell back his shares for $11.50 each, but management provided a term sheet that showed $11.375. Buffett was angered, and decided to buy all the shares he could. He won control of Berkshire on May 10, 1965, and began building his conglomerate. Though the textile business closed in 1985, Buffett kept the Berkshire name.

*Philanthropy

My cmnt: Buffett “gives” all this stock to the crooked Gates Foundation and his four FAMILY charities (sound familiar? think Clinton Crime Family foundation). Every penny is offset by not paying taxes on his vast earnings. And so he remains, year after year, the fifth wealthiest man on the planet.

Buffett has since 2006 donated about $43.3 billion to the Gates Foundation and $15.1 billion to four family charities. His three children will distribute, opens new tab his Berkshire holdings, which account for about 99.5% of Buffett’s wealth, after his death, and must decide unanimously on each commitment. Donations to the Gates Foundation will stop after Buffett dies.

*Home

My cmnt: Buffett does – with much White Guilt – own a private jet. Think of Buffett as a typical, guilty, white democrat who lives and conducts his personal and business life like a good Republican but votes democrat to keep them from investigating and punishing his business interests. His personal values are best reflected in his longtime association with Bill Gates.

Does Warren Buffett have a private jet?

AI Overview

Yes, Warren Buffett owns a private jet, a Bombardier Challenger 600, which he famously nicknamed “The Indefensible” for its extravagance but later renamed “The Indispensable” after realizing its immense time-saving value for his business, Berkshire Hathaway. Although known for frugality, he embraced private aviation to make extensive travel more efficient, viewing it as a critical business tool and time-saver.  

Key Details

• Initial Hesitation: Buffett initially felt guilty about owning a jet, calling it “indefensible” due to his past criticisms of other CEOs’ lavish spending. 
• Justification: He eventually embraced it as essential for saving time, allowing him to manage his vast business interests more effectively and enjoy his work more. 
• Frugal Approach: Even with the jet, he maintains a famously modest lifestyle, living in the same house and valuing experiences and friends over excessive material possessions, as noted in Yahoo Finance. 
• Berkshire Connection: Berkshire Hathaway also owns NetJets, a leading fractional jet ownership company, further integrating private aviation into his business model. 

Buffett has lived since 1958 in the same house on a well-trafficked Omaha street, where he primarily works. He paid $31,500 for it. Built in 1921, the five-bedroom, 2-1/2-bath, 6,500-square-foot home on 0.72 acres was assessed at $1,224,500 in 2025. Annual taxes are $20,457. (Source: Douglas County, Nebraska)

*Famous Buffett quote

“Lose money for the firm, and I will be understanding. Lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless.” – September 4, 1991 congressional testimony about Salomon Inc, where Buffett became interim chairman to restore order after a Treasury auction bidding scandal.

FACTS ABOUT BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY

*Leadership

Warren Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer; Greg Abel and Ajit Jain, vice chairmen; Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, investment managers.

Abel and Jain have day-to-day oversight of Berkshire’s non-insurance and insurance units, respectively. Combs and Weschler handle some stock investments. Buffett handles major capital allocations and investments.

*Portfolio

Berkshire Hathaway owns 189 operating businesses and dozens of stocks.

*Major stock investments

Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab was Berkshire’s largest stock holding at the end of 2024, even though Berkshire sold 600 million shares during the year. Berkshire also has multi-billion dollar stakes in many other U.S. companies, and stakes close to 10% in Japan’s five largest trading houses.

*Financials

Berkshire Hathaway posted record operating profit for the third straight calendar year in 2024, helped by its insurance businesses.

*Stock price

Through May 2, Berkshire shares were up 18.9% this year while the Standard & Poor’s was down 3.3%, as new U.S. tariffs and recession worries rattled markets. The conglomerate had a market value of $1.14 trillion.

Between 1965 and 2024, Berkshire’s stock price posted a compounded annual gain of 19.9%. It outperformed the S&P, which rose 10.4% annually, including dividends (pre-tax).

* Some of Berkshire’s operating businesses

Alleghany, Benjamin Moore, Berkshire Hathaway Automotive, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, BNSF, Borsheims Fine Jewelry, Brooks, Business Wire, Clayton Homes, Duracell, Forest River, Fruit of the Loom, Geico, General Re, HomeServices of America, IMC International Metalworking, International Dairy Queen, Jazwares, Johns Manville, Lubrizol, Marmon, McLane, National Indemnity, Nebraska Furniture Mart, NetJets, Oriental Trading, Pampered Chef, Pilot Travel Centers, Precision Castparts, See’s Candies, Shaw Industries

*Select acquisitions

See’s Candies, $25 million (1972); Geico, $2.3 billion (1996); Dairy Queen, $590 million (1998); General Re, $15.9 billion (1998); NetJets, $725 million (1998); Clayton Homes, $1.7 billion (2003); PacifiCorp, $5.1 billion (2006); Iscar, $6.1 billion (2006-2013); Marmon, $8.9 billion (2008-2014); Burlington Northern Santa Fe, $26.5 billion (2010); Lubrizol, $9 billion (2011); NV Energy, $5.6 billion (2013); H.J. Heinz, $12.1 billion (majority stake, 2013; now part of Kraft Heinz); Van Tuyl (now Berkshire Hathaway Automotive), $4.1 billion (2015); Precision Castparts, $32.1 billion (2016); Duracell, $2.9 billion (2016); Pilot Travel Centers, $13.6 billion (2017-2024); Alleghany, $11.5 billion (2022). (Sources: Barclays, Berkshire)

*Employees

Berkshire employs 392,396 people. Its main office has 27, including Buffett.

*Annual meeting attendance:

12 (1965), about 24 (1979), 1,000 (1986), 4,100 (1995), 13,000 (2000), 21,000 (2005), 42,000 (2015, Buffett’s 50th anniversary running Berkshire). (Sources: Omaha World-Herald, Berkshire, Reuters)

*Succession

Buffett has not publicly signaled any plans to retire. Abel is expected to become CEO when Buffett retires, cannot continue or dies. Combs, who has been Geico’s chief executive since 2020, and Weschler may succeed Buffett as chief investment officer, though Buffett said at Berkshire’s 2024 annual meeting that Abel could fill that role. Buffett’s eldest son, Howard, is expected to become non-executive chairman.

Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in Omaha, Nebraska; Editing by Deepa Babington and Stephen Coates