The Buffett era at Berkshire Hathaway is officially over. On Friday, Warren Buffett, 96, stepped down as chairman of the conglomerate he built from a struggling New England textile maker into a company worth roughly a trillion dollars. The change, announced in a company statement Friday morning and effective immediately, ends his 56 years as Berkshire chairman and completes a leadership handover that started when he retired as chief executive at the end of last year.

He is staying on the board as chairman emeritus, an honorary role that carries no decision-making authority, and will keep offering his judgment and perspective, according to Berkshire. His son Howard Buffett, 71, a Berkshire director since 1993, takes over as Berkshire chairman. Buffett said the new Berkshire chairman has served "a longer apprenticeship than I served before taking the reins at the age of 34."

In a letter to shareholders on Friday, Buffett explained the timing. He wrote that his expectations for Greg Abel, who succeeded him as chief executive in January, "were sky high from the start, and he has exceeded them," adding that "the timing is right to complete the transition." Then came the line that will be quoted for years: "Father Time always wins," Buffett wrote. "He has, however, been generous with me. He has given me the opportunity to see Berkshire reach a point where I am more confident than ever about what lies ahead."

Why Buffett stepped down now

The announcement surprised no one who has followed Berkshire's slow-motion succession plan. Buffett revealed Abel's promotion at Berkshire's annual meeting in May 2025, and Abel took the chief executive job in January. Since then Abel has been putting his own stamp on the company, and Friday's move completes his authority. Warren Buffett no longer holds a management role at the firm he took over in 1965, and he will not even serve as a regular sounding board for Abel, according to Reuters.

Abel has already made his mark on Berkshire's portfolio. Dow Jones Newswires reported that under Abel, Berkshire made a $10 billion investment in Google parent Alphabet and completed a $6.8 billion acquisition of home builder Taylor Morrison, ranking among the company's biggest deals in recent years. Abel, 64, joined Berkshire in 2000 when it bought MidAmerican Energy, ran that business for a decade as its chief executive, and became vice chairman overseeing Berkshire's non-insurance businesses in 2018.

"Warren's impact on Berkshire and its owners is without parallel in the history of American business," Abel said in a statement Friday. Buffett returned the praise: "Sixty-plus years in, I still have the best job in the world," he wrote in his letter. "That is not something many people my age can say, and I have never felt better about what comes next."

What Howard Buffett's chairmanship means

The new Berkshire chairman is the eldest of Buffett's three children and a very different figure from his father. Howard Buffett, 71, is a farmer, a former sheriff, and a leader at a foundation focused on food security and conflict mitigation. He has held directorships at major companies including Coca-Cola, Archer-Daniels-Midland, and ConAgra Foods. As a non-executive chairman, his job is to preserve Berkshire's culture and values rather than run its day-to-day operations.

"Howie's there as a watchdog," longtime Berkshire investor James Armstrong told Reuters. "Minimize bureaucracy, stay focused on long-term goals, put the shareholders first, no self-dealing, no corruption, and widen the moat that protects Berkshire's businesses." The message to shareholders is continuity: the roughly $1.1 trillion conglomerate, which owns the BNSF railroad, car insurer Geico, and major stakes in companies like Apple and Coca-Cola, is not about to change direction.

Berkshire said Susan Decker, a board member since 2007, will continue as lead independent director, keeping the board's independent oversight in place alongside the new chairman. Shares of Berkshire were little changed on the news, according to CNN, a sign that investors had long expected this exact handoff.

A 60-year legacy, handed over

Few executives in history have shaped a single company the way Buffett shaped Berkshire. He became Berkshire chairman and chief executive in 1970, turned the insurer National Indemnity's growing pool of premiums into investment capital, and used his value investing philosophy to build one of the world's most valuable companies, greatly outperforming the broader market. His bets on Coca-Cola in 1988 and Gillette in 1989 remain among the most famous investments ever made.

Buffett is also one of the most generous philanthropists in history. In 2010 he founded The Giving Pledge with Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, asking the world's wealthiest people to donate at least half their wealth. He remains the world's 10th richest person, with a net worth of $145 billion according to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index. The departing Berkshire chairman planned this succession for years, and the company says it has never felt better about what comes next. The announcement was covered by the Associated Press.