All About Warren Buffett, The Oracle Of Omaha Retiring After 60 Years

Warren Buffett, the “Oracle of Omaha,” retires on December 31 as chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway. He will continue as chairman. Greg Abel will formally take over as CEO on Thursday, January 1.

The 95-year-old's retirement caps an extraordinary 60-year tenure of global investing.

Who Is Warren Buffett?

Born in 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska, Buffett is the son of US Congressman Howard Buffett. He bought his first stock at age 11 and filed his first tax return at 13. As a schoolboy, he sold newspapers, chewing gum and Coca-Cola, and by his teens was already making steady income from small business ventures.

Rejected by Harvard Business School, Buffett went on to earn a master's degree in economics from Columbia University, where he studied under Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing.

Buffett began buying shares of Berkshire Hathaway, then a struggling New England textile company, in 1962 at about $7.60 a share. Over time, he repurposed the company into a diversified holding firm, using its cash flows, especially from insurance businesses, to fund acquisitions and investments.

Under Buffett, Berkshire grew into a vast empire owning companies such as Geico, Duracell, Dairy Queen, BNSF Railway and major utility operations, while also holding significant stakes in publicly listed giants including American Express, Coca-Cola and Apple. Berkshire shares now trade for more than $750,000 each.

For decades, Berkshire routinely outperformed the S&P 500, cementing Buffett's reputation as the world's greatest investor. Even after donating more than $60 billion over the past two decades, Buffett's Berkshire stake is still valued at roughly $150 billion.

Despite his immense wealth, Buffett is famous for his frugal lifestyle. He still lives in the same Omaha home he bought in 1958. He drives himself, reads several newspapers a day and long resisted owning a smartphone.

Buffett has pledged to give away more than 99 per cent of his wealth and has already donated nearly $65 billion, primarily through the Gates Foundation and his children's foundations. In 2010, he and Bill Gates launched the Giving Pledge, requesting billionaires to commit at least half of their fortunes to charitable causes.

Buffett was among the top 10 richest people globally, with an estimated net worth near $149-168 billion in 2025, as per Forbes. Most of his wealth is tied to his long-held Berkshire Hathaway stock.