Buffett to stay chair as Abel becomes Berkshire CEO in 2026

Billionaire Warren Buffett will remain chairman of Berkshire Hathaway when vice chairman Greg Abel takes over as CEO to begin 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 Berkshire’s remarkable winning streak amid tariff shocks, financial turmoil and a possible 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 by the end of the year.

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 giant insurers. As the company grew, its stock often rose past indexes by wide margins — returning an average 19.9% each year versus 10.4% for the Standard & Poor’s 500.

The decision to continue with the so-called Sage of Omaha as head of the board came amid speculation that Howard Buffett, the second-born of the investor’s three children, would move into that spot. The older Buffett has said that after he dies he would like Howard to take over as chairman.

A current vice-chairman, Abel, will take over as CEO as big questions hover over the company. Buffett himself has said President Donald Trump’s tariffs were a big mistake. There are also worries that Berkshire might not able to avoid the fate of most conglomerates—forced to break up to recapture focus.

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 assured some of the estimated 40,000 attendees of the company’s celebratory weekend annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, that one day the company would be “bombarded with opportunities.”

Abel, a low-key Canadian with a love a hockey, has been overseeing many of Berkshire’s non-insurance businesses for years, but has not been deciding where to invest the company’s cash.

Buffett said his trust in Abel can seen in where he is putting his money.

“I have no intention — zero — of selling one share of Berkshire Hathaway. I will give it away eventually,” Buffett said. “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.”

What to do with that personal fortune, nearly $170 billion, will eventually be in the hands of Buffett’s three children, including would-be Berkshire chairman, Howard Buffett.

Howard was designated in June along with his siblings as manager of Buffett’s trust when he dies and he said that they will decide where to donate that money. Buffett has already given away billions, most notable more than $40 billion to the Gates Foundation started by Bill and Melinda French Gates.

Howard, 70, has his own foundation through which he has donated billions to humanitarian and food security causes, including helping coffee farms in El Salvador and clearing landmines in Ukraine.

Tributes to Buffett came tumbling in over the weekend praising his investment savvy and folksy management style.

“There’s never been someone like Warren, and countless people, myself included, have been inspired by his wisdom,” Apple CEO Tim Cook posted on X. “It’s been one of the great privileges of my life to know him.”

JP Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon said Buffett represented “everything that is good about American capitalism and America itself,” and praised his “integrity, optimism and common sense.”

____

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