Warren Buffett, the storied chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, saw his net worth decline by $8.1 billion on Monday following a sharp drop in Berkshire’s share price and the official announcement that he will retire by the end of the year.
The 94-year-old investment icon’s wealth, long tethered to the performance of Berkshire Hathaway stock, currently stands at an estimated $160 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The 5.7% single-day loss, the equivalent of more than $8 billion, follows a 5.12% drop in the company’s Class B shares, which closed Monday at $512.15.
Class A shares, which Buffett holds most heavily, dropped 5% from $809,000 to $769,000. The sharp decline erased more than $30 billion in market capitalization and marked one of the largest single-day slides for the company in recent memory.
The market reaction came just days after Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, where Buffett formally announced that he would step aside as CEO at the end of 2025. Though long anticipated, the confirmation rattled investors, many of whom have seen Buffett’s steady hand as a core component of Berkshire’s success and resilience.
Berkshire’s first-quarter earnings also underwhelmed. The company reported $6,694.59 in operating earnings per Class A share, about 5% below consensus estimates, according to FactSet.
As Greg Abel, Berkshire’s vice chairman for non-insurance operations, prepares to assume leadership, investors are now beginning to grapple with a post-Buffett era, one that marks the end of a remarkable chapter in American capitalism.
What to know
Buffett, who began his legendary investing career early, the son of a U.S. congressman, he bought his first stock at age 11 and filed his first tax return at 13, has spent more than six decades at the helm of Berkshire. Since taking control in 1965, he has delivered a compounded annual gain of 19.8% in per-share market value, vastly outperforming the broader market.
- Under his leadership, Berkshire has grown into a $700 billion conglomerate, owning businesses like Geico, Clayton Homes, and Dairy Queen, and maintaining substantial stakes in companies including Coca-Cola and American Express.
- Buffett owns about 37.4% of Berkshire’s Class A shares, which make up roughly 99.5% of his net worth. Despite the recent loss, he remains $18.5 billion ahead in 2025 due to strong early-year gains.
Beyond his business legacy, Buffett has committed to giving away the vast majority of his wealth. In 2010, he and Bill Gates co-founded the Giving Pledge, an initiative encouraging billionaires to donate at least half their fortunes to charitable causes. Buffett himself has pledged to give away more than 99% of his wealth and has already donated about $62 billion, primarily through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and his children’s charitable foundations.
