Warren Buffett, 96, Steps Down as Berkshire Chairman
After 56 years leading the board, Warren Buffett becomes honorary chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, a company worth over 1,000 billion dollars. His son Howard Buffett, 71, succeeds him.
Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate whose market value tops 1,000 billion dollars (~920 billion euros), announced on Friday, September 18, 2026, that Warren Buffett, 96, is stepping down as chairman of its board of directors. He held the position for 56 years, since 1970. The handover takes effect immediately, and he is succeeded by his son, Howard Buffett, 71, a board member since 1993.
Buffett takes on the title of chairman emeritus and remains a regular member of the board. The company said in its statement that Buffett will continue to offer his judgment and perspective to the board, but without the executive authority that came with the chairman’s role. In a letter to shareholders released the same day, Buffett described the handover this way:
Father Time always wins. He has, however, been generous with me. He gave me the chance to see Berkshire reach a point where I am more confident than ever in what lies ahead.
The line was written by a man who, according to the letter, has been with the company since 1965, and who, despite his age, was still calling in to CNBC as recently as July 2026, even though his voice, as the journalists listening at the time described it, sounded weakened.
Eight months after stepping down as CEO
The change at the top of the board comes eight months after Buffett handed the chief executive role to Greg Abel at the end of 2025. That made Abel the company’s operating chief, while Buffett had kept the chairman title until now. Two Serbian outlets, Danas and Nova ekonomija, reported that Buffett was stepping down “after 50 years” as chairman; according to the company’s own statement, cited by ABC News, he took on the chairman role in 1970, meaning he held it for 56 years.
The company he built from a textile mill
Under Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway grew into a conglomerate with holdings spanning railroads, insurance, energy and consumer goods. Its portfolio today includes, among others:
- the railroad BNSF
- the insurer Geico
- the textile maker Fruit of the Loom
- the paint maker Benjamin Moore
- the battery maker Duracell
- the Dairy Queen chain
Berkshire Hathaway’s stock has gained more than 5,500,000 percent since Buffett turned the company into his primary investment vehicle back in the 1960s through the moment he stepped down as CEO. By comparison, the S&P 500 index rose 39,000 percent over the same period.
Apple and Alphabet, two late bets
Buffett stayed an active investor right up to the handover. In July, he told CNBC that Berkshire had bought into Alphabet, Google’s parent company, and admitted he had “made a mistake” by not investing in it sooner. That stake is now worth more than 27 billion dollars (~24.8 billion euros) and is Berkshire’s fifth largest holding.
The same pattern played out with Apple. Buffett said in 2012 that he regretted not buying Apple stock earlier, even though he was known for investing only in businesses he understood. Even before that comment, though, he had advised Steve Jobs, then Apple’s CEO, to put the company’s excess cash toward buying back its own shares, advice Apple took. Berkshire started buying Apple stock in 2016, and it is now the company’s single largest holding, worth nearly 80 billion dollars (~73.6 billion euros).
The world’s tenth richest man
NBC News puts Buffett’s fortune at more than 145 billion dollars (~133.4 billion euros), placing him tenth on the list of the world’s wealthiest people. Over the past decade he has donated nearly 50 billion dollars (~46 billion euros) to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and before that he launched the Giving Pledge, which brought together a group of billionaires committed to giving away most of their wealth. Buffett himself put that commitment this way:
More than 99 percent of my wealth will go to philanthropy during my lifetime or after my death.
Formally, Buffett remains on Berkshire Hathaway’s board and, per the company’s statement, will keep weighing in on its decisions. Day to day operations now rest entirely with Greg Abel as CEO and Howard Buffett as board chairman, while, for the first time since 1970, the father holds no executive role at all in the company he built.
