TLDR:
- Warren Buffett will retire as Berkshire Hathaway CEO at the end of 2025
- Greg Abel will succeed Buffett as CEO starting January 1, 2026
- Buffett famously called Bitcoin “rat poison squared” and a “gambling token”
- Berkshire Hathaway stock dropped over 5% following the succession announcement
- Under Buffett’s leadership, Berkshire achieved a 5,500,000% return since 1965
Warren Buffett, the 94-year-old legendary investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, announced his plans to step down at the end of 2025 after transforming the company into one of the world’s most profitable firms. The announcement came during Berkshire Hathaway’s 60th annual shareholder meeting over the weekend, surprising many investors who expected him to remain at the helm indefinitely.
The Berkshire Hathaway board unanimously approved Buffett’s appointment of vice chair Greg Abel as his successor. Abel, who currently oversees the company’s non-insurance businesses, will officially take over on January 1, 2026. Buffett will continue serving as chair of the board.
The market reacted swiftly to the news, with Berkshire Hathaway stock dropping over 5% on Monday. Class A shares fell to $768,719 each, while Class B shares declined to nearly $512 each.
Edward Jones senior analyst Kyle Sanders noted that the announcement caught many investors off guard. “I think there’s a good portion of the investor base who just thought that Warren was going to keep running the company until he passed away,” Sanders said.
Buffett’s Bitcoin Criticism
Throughout his career, Buffett maintained a firm skepticism toward Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. He famously called Bitcoin “rat poison squared” in a May 2018 interview with CNBC.
In another 2018 interview, Buffett predicted that “cryptocurrencies, generally… with almost certainty… will come to a bad ending.” He added that his company would never take a position in cryptocurrencies, stating, “We don’t own any, we’re not short on any, we’ll never have a position in them.”
As recently as 2023, despite Bitcoin’s price surges, Buffett described it as a “gambling token.” He suggested that people investing in Bitcoin were chasing easy money and wanted to “play the roulette wheel.”
Buffett’s stance on the technology behind Bitcoin evolved over time. In a 2019 CNBC interview, he acknowledged that “blockchain was important,” while still calling Bitcoin “a delusion” in the same discussion.
During a dinner with Tron founder Justin Sun in 2020, Buffett offered a more nuanced view. He stated that “Bitcoin cannot capture the value of blockchain” and that “just because something has value doesn’t make it a good investment.”
Abel’s Vision for Berkshire
Abel joined Berkshire as part of an acquisition that became Berkshire Hathaway Energy in 1999. During Saturday’s meeting, he shared his perspective on the company’s future, particularly regarding its cash reserves.
Abel highlighted the company’s more than $300 billion in cash as an “enormous asset.” He emphasized that this cash pile allows Berkshire to “weather the difficult times” and not be dependent on banks or other parties.
Buffett reassured shareholders that he has no plans to sell Berkshire stock as a result of the leadership change. He mentioned that he would “still hang around, and could conceivably be useful in a few cases,” but the final decisions would rest with Abel.
Under Buffett’s leadership since 1965, Berkshire Hathaway’s per-share value has compounded at a 19.9% rate, almost double the 10.4% average annual gain of the S&P 500. This has resulted in a 5,502,284% return for shareholders.
Year to date, Berkshire Hathaway shares are up more than 13%, outperforming the S&P 500, which is down 4%. The company ranks as the seventh-largest in the S&P 500, with a market cap of about $1.1 trillion.
Edward Jones maintains a Hold rating on the stock. Sanders believes that deploying some of the company’s cash reserves is key for the stock to continue moving higher.
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