Warren Buffett will remain chairman at Berkshire Hathaway when Greg Abel takes over as CEO in 2026

FILE - Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, smiles as he plays bridge following the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Neb., May 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

OMAHA, Neb. — Billionaire Warren Buffett will remain chairman of the board at Berkshire Hathaway when vice chairman Greg Abel takes over for Buffett as CEO at the start of 2026.

The board of directors at the cash-rich conglomerate voted Sunday to keep the legendary 94-year-old investor as head of the board, a decision likely to relieve investors worried about maintaining Berkshire’s remarkable winning streak as U.S. and global economies are beset by tariff shocks, financial turmoil and a growing risk of recession.

The board in the same meeting also approved Buffett’s chosen successor as CEO, veteran Berkshire executive Greg Abel, 62. In a surprise announcement Saturday, Buffett said he would step down from that top spot at the end of the year.

Berkshire Class B shares fell 4% Monday morning after hitting an all-time high Friday.

Macrae Sykes, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, praised the company’s transparency after Buffett announced the succession and does not believe Buffett is going anywhere.

“I think it gives Warren a little more bandwidth instead of running this conglomerate,” Sykes said in an interview with The Associated Press. ”It gives Greg more transparency on the opps with also Warren still being his mentor as chairman,”

Unmatched track record of success

In six decades at the helm, Buffett turned a Massachusetts textile company into a sprawling but nimble conglomerate that owns everything from Daily Queen and See’s Candies to BNSF Railway and massive insurance companies. As the company grew, Warren’s reputation grew with it as shares of Berkshire Hathaway climbed steadily, exceeding major indexes by wide margins and returning an average 19.9% each year to investors versus 10.4% for the Standard & Poor’s 500.

The decision to continue with the Oracle of Omaha, as Buffett is known, as head of the board differs from the succession plans laid out in the event of Buffett’s death. The billionaire has long said that Howard Buffett, the second-born of the investor’s three children, should become chairman when he is gone to protect Berkshire’s culture.

Abel will take over in a precarious time as the U.S. launches trade wars against friend and foe alike, which Buffett has called a mistake. But Abel has managed all of Berkshire’s non-insurance businesses since 2018.

So much money, so few places to put it

Then there is Berkshire’s $348 billion in cash.

Buffett says he doesn’t see many bargains to invest that money in now, not even Berkshire’s own stock, but he assured some of the estimated 40,000 attendees of the company’s annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, over the weekend that one day the company would be “bombarded with opportunities.”

Abel, a low-key Canadian with a love a hockey, is a more hands-on manager than Buffett, asking managers tough questions and encouraging them to collaborate with other subsidiaries when it makes sense. He will now take on oversight of the insurance businesses and responsibility for investing the company’s cash. Vice Chairman Ajit Jain, 73, will stay on for now to help manage the insurance businesses that include Geico and massive reinsurers like General Re.

Abel said Saturday that he wouldn’t change the Berkshire’s approach to investing, which he learned from Buffett. Maintaining Berkshire’s fortress-like balance sheet will always be a priority, he said.

Eventually, Berkshire might have to consider paying a dividend, which Buffett always resisted because he believed he could deliver better returns by reinvesting the cash. For now, Buffett and Abel want to keep building cash, so they are prepared when opportunities arise.

High praise for Abel

Buffett endorsed Abel, vowing to keep all of his shares that give him control of 30% of Berkshire Hathaway.

“It’s way better with Greg than with me because I didn’t want to work as hard as he works and I can get away with it because we’ve got a basically good business -- a very good business,“” Buffett said.

He also said Abel brings new strengths to the company.

“The fact that you can do pretty well doesn’t mean you couldn’t do better, and Greg can do better at many things,” he said.

The CEOs of Berkshire subsidiaries who report to Abel have praised his management style of personal accountability, but also autonomy. See’s Candy CEO Pat Egan worked with Abel at Berkshire’s utility unit for years before he took over six years ago and said Abel makes sure he’s considered every contingency.

“He’s allowed me to make a lot of decisions that he may or may not have agreed with, but he’ll support us at the end of the day, no matter what as long as we’re operating with integrity and principles and the long game,” Egan said.

But Morningstar analyst Greggory Warren wrote that Buffett’s succession announcement left him with plenty of questions and Abel will have to prove himself.

“Abel, in our view, will be held to a different standard than Buffett, with a greater focus on how well Berkshire is performing—especially with it being likely that there will be some churn in the company’s shareholders as we move past the end of an era for the firm,” Warren said.

Buffett’s philanthropy continues

Buffett has always delegated the decisions about how to distribute his fortune, worth nearly $170 billion, to others through annual share donations to the Gates Foundation and four family foundations run by his children.

The Gates Foundation has received the biggest donations worth more than $40 billion since he started giving away his fortune in 2006.

He said last summer that his three children will decide how to distribute his remaining fortune after his death, but donations to the Gates Foundation will end. Buffett has said he expects it to take a decade to give away all his shares after his death, ensuring extended support for Abel from the family.

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By Bernard Condon And Josh Funk

AP Business writer Bernard Condon is in New York City. AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman contributed to this report from New York City.