By Utkarsh Shetti
Sept 18 (Reuters) – Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway’s former CEO and legendary investor, is stepping down as its chairman, marking the end of his executive duties at the firm he helped build into one of the world’s largest conglomerates.
Buffett, 96, will become chairman emeritus, an honorary title that typically does not include decision-making responsibilities. He will remain a member of the board and offer his judgment and perspective, Berkshire said.
Here’s a timeline of major milestones under Buffett’s leadership:
1965: Buffett took over Berkshire, a struggling New England textile company, after winning a dispute with prior management, marking the origins of the famed conglomerate. The textile business shuttered in 1985 after two decades of effort to turn it around proved unsuccessful.
1967: Berkshire acquired National Indemnity, setting in motion a theme that would eventually become the financial engine of the company. The strategic acquisition gave Berkshire a growing pool of capital from insurance premiums that could be used to deploy into investments.
1988-1989: Berkshire began buying into Coca-Cola in 1988, an investment that remains one of its largest holdings to date. By 1989, he was investing heavily in Gillette, illustrating his preference for owning simple businesses that were easy to understand.
1991: Buffett personally stepped in as interim chairman of Salomon Brothers after a trading scandal pushed it to the brink of collapse, putting Berkshire’s $700 million investment at risk. He spent months repairing relations with regulators, which ultimately helped keep the investment bank alive.
1996-2000: Between 1996 and 1998, Berkshire started expanding aggressively into insurance, taking full ownership of GEICO and buying out General Re, cementing the sector as a foundational investment theme in its portfolio. Buffett entered utilities in 1999 after taking control of MidAmerican Energy, which was later renamed Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
2006: Buffett pledged to donate nearly all of his Berkshire stock to philanthropic foundations. Since then, he has donated over half of his shares, including more than $47 billion to the Gates Foundation and over $17 billion to four family charities.
2008-2011: Berkshire injected $5 billion into Goldman Sachs at the peak of the global financial crisis in September 2008. In 2011, it invested another $5 billion in Bank of America when the bank was dealing with the fallout from its disastrous acquisition of Countrywide Financial during the crisis. Berkshire later made an $11.5 billion profit on that investment in 2017, not including dividend payouts. It also made a monumental acquisition of the railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe for $26.4 billion in 2010.
2016: Berkshire began accumulating Apple, initially taking a stake worth roughly $1 billion. What began as a relatively small position eventually became Berkshire’s largest holding at the end of 2025.
2022: After years of relatively subdued dealmaking, Berkshire deployed tens of billions of dollars into large stock purchases of companies including Chevron, HP Inc and Occidental Petroleum.
2024: Berkshire’s market value topped $1 trillion, becoming the first non-tech US company to reach the milestone.
January 1, 2026: Buffett handed over the reins to Greg Abel after stepping down as CEO, culminating a storied tenure in which the firm returned over 6,100,000% since 1965.
(Reporting by Utkarsh Shetti in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
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