American investor, aged 95. He bought Berkshire Hathaway, then a textile-maker, in 1965. In the six decades that followed he turned it into an immense insurance firm and sprawling conglomerate with interests in everything from energy to sweets, employing a value-investing strategy that sought out companies appearing cheap relative to their intrinsic value. Since he took control, Berkshire's shares have trounced the S&P 500.
From 1965 to the end of 2024, Berkshire's market value increased by more than 5,500,000%, with a compounded annual return of almost 20%, against a total return on the S&P 500 of 39,000%.
The first time he "retired" was in 1956, aged 25, when Benjamin Graham, the famous stock-picker who employed him, closed his fund. He went home to Nebraska but soon started an investment partnership of his own. In 1969, aged 38, he retired a second time, telling investors he was "not attuned to this market environment" and shutting down the fund. His attention shifted to Berkshire Hathaway, then a struggling textile concern he controlled.
On May 3rd 2025, at the end of Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting, Buffett announced he would step down as chief executive at the end of the year. He gave most of Berkshire's directors no advance notice and did not tell Greg Abel, his presumptive successor. On December 31st 2025 he stepped down as chief executive, handing the role to Gregory Abel. He will remain chairman of Berkshire's board, which is stacked with his family and friends.
Buffett is a "value" investor insofar as he began his career scouring markets for companies worth less than the accounting value of their assets, but he has also owned plenty of "growth" stocks. He dislikes both terms. His guiding concept is "moats"—a competitive advantage that allows a business to consistently earn a rate of return above its cost of capital. His purchase of Apple shares between 2016 and 2018 was among the most profitable investments in Berkshire's history.
He has a history of deploying capital during downturns. He snapped up a large stake in Wells Fargo during a slump in 1990 and invested in companies including Johnson & Johnson and Kraft Foods (and Wells Fargo again) after the global financial crisis of 2007-09. In recent years he poured billions into several of Japan's trading conglomerates, including Mitsubishi and Sumitomo.
Over the past year he aggressively sold stocks, including a large chunk of Berkshire's stake in Apple, while buying Alphabet shares. By the end of March 2025, Berkshire held $348bn in cash and short-term American government debt—more than twice the amount at the close of 2023—and for the first time in two decades owned more cash than listed equities. Buffett has said there is not much to buy at a reasonable price. In November 2025 he said he was "going quiet" ahead of his imminent retirement.
Perhaps his greatest innovation was not in allocating capital but raising it. In 1967 Berkshire bought National Indemnity, a Nebraskan insurer. Together with GEICO, a car insurer, and a large reinsurance business, it provides much of Berkshire's capital by investing policyholder premiums—unusually, half in a concentrated portfolio of stocks rather than bonds. Berkshire's annual meeting is a jamboree of adoring middle-class capitalists. The 1934 edition of "Security Analysis", by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd, is its bible.
Historic Underdosing: To live in a period of time when nothing seems to happen. Major symptoms include addiction to newspapers, magazines, and TV news broadcasts.