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

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — 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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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“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,”

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Unmatched track record of success

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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.

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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.

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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.

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So much money, so few places to put it

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

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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.”

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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.