Warren Buffett’s path to investing glory
Warren Buffett is retiring as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, the legendary investor and former CEO. This marks the end of his executive duties with the company he helped turn into one of the largest conglomerates in the world.
Buffett will be appointed chairman emeritus. This is an honorary title which does not include any decision-making responsibility. Berkshire announced that Buffett will remain a board member and continue to 'offer his judgment and perspective.
Here is a timeline with major milestones that Buffett has achieved:
Buffett won a dispute against the previous management and took control of Berkshire Textiles, a struggling New England company. This was the beginning of the famous conglomerate. After two decades of unsuccessful attempts to revive the textile business, it closed in 1985.
Berkshire purchased National Indemnity in 1967, launching a theme which would become the 'financial engine of the business. Berkshire was able to use the capital generated by insurance premiums from this strategic acquisition for investments.
1988-1989 Berkshire started buying Coca-Cola shares in 1988. This investment remains one of the company's largest to date. By 1989, he was investing heavily in Gillette. This shows his preference for simple, easy-to-understand businesses.
Buffett personally took over as interim chairman at Salomon Brothers in 1991 after a trading scandal brought the company to the verge of collapse and put Berkshire’s $700 million investment on risk. He spent many months working to repair?relations between regulators and the investment bank.
Berkshire began aggressively expanding into the insurance sector between 1996 and 2000. It acquired GEICO, and General Re. This is what made this sector a core investment theme for its portfolio. Buffett began investing in utilities after he took control of MidAmerican Energy. The company was later renamed Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
Buffett pledged in 2006 to donate almost all of his Berkshire Stock to charitable foundations. Buffett has since donated more than half of his Berkshire stock, including over $47 billion to Gates Foundation, and over $17 to four family charities.
In September 2008, at the height of the global financial crises, Berkshire invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs. In '2011, Berkshire invested $5 billion more in Bank of America as the bank dealt with the fallout from its disastrous acquisition of Countrywide Financial during crisis. Berkshire made an additional $11.5 billion in profit from that investment, not including dividends. In 2010, it made another major acquisition, the railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
Berkshire started accumulating Apple in 2016, initially buying a stake worth approximately $1 billion. Berkshire's initial small stake in Apple grew to become its largest holding by the end of 2025.
2022: Berkshire, after years of relatively modest dealmaking, invested tens of millions of dollars in large stock purchases, including Chevron Inc, HP Inc, and Occidental Petroleum.
Berkshire will be the first US non-tech company to surpass $1 trillion in market value by 2024.
Buffett handed the reins over to Greg Abel on January 1, 2026, after stepping down from his position as CEO. This marked the end of a long tenure during which the company had returned more than 6,100,000.0% since 1965.
(source: Reuters)
