Warren Buffett Steps Down as Berkshire Hathaway Chairman After Six Decades

SentiSense · Published Sep 18, 2026, 8:28 AM ET · Updated Sep 28, 2026, 2:45 AM ET

Warren Buffett, 96, is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway effective immediately, becoming chairman emeritus while remaining on the board. His son Howard Buffett, a director since 1993, takes the chairmanship. The move completes a handover that began when Greg Abel became CEO on January 1. In a letter to shareholders Buffett wrote that Father Time always wins. Berkshire Class B shares were down 0.3% on the day.

Warren Buffett, 96, is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, taking the title of chairman emeritus while staying on the board. His son Howard Buffett, a Berkshire director since 1993, becomes chairman effective immediately. Buffett became chairman in 1970, so the tenure ending today runs 56 years; he took control of the company in 1965, which is the longer number sometimes quoted.

This is the second half of a succession, not the start of one. Greg Abel became chief executive on January 1 after a board vote in May 2025, and Buffett framed today's move as finishing that work, saying of Abel that he "has taken hold of the Chief Executive Officer job in every respect" and that "the timing is right to complete the transition." Anyone reading the headline as a CEO change is reading it wrong: the chief executive has not changed.

In the shareholder letter accompanying the announcement, Buffett wrote: "Father Time always wins. 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." The letter is characteristically unsentimental about the arithmetic of age and pointedly confident about what he leaves behind.

The market reaction was muted and should not be over-read. BRK.B closed down 0.3% on the day and is up about 1% year to date against 11.5% for the S&P 500. Index futures were modestly higher that morning, with S&P 500 futures up 0.23% at 7,725, the Dow up 0.12% and the Nasdaq up 0.51%, but the move was attributed to Treasury yields retreating from recent highs rather than to anything out of Omaha.

What the transition actually changes is oversight rather than operations. Abel already runs the businesses; the chairmanship governs capital allocation discipline and board culture, which is where Berkshire's distinctiveness has always lived. The things worth watching are the pace of deployment from the cash pile, whether the buyback policy holds its shape, and how the board behaves on its first large acquisition without Buffett in the chair.