Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett
Born	Warren Edward Buffett 30 8, 1930
Birthplace	Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Investor, businessman, philanthropist
Title	Chairman, Berkshire Hathaway
Employer	Berkshire Hathaway
Known for	Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, value investing, philanthropy
Education	M.S. Economics, Columbia Business School
Awards	Presidential Medal of Freedom (2011)
Website	[[berkshirehathaway.com berkshirehathaway.com] Official site]

Warren Edward Buffett (born August 30, 1930) is an American investor, businessman, and philanthropist who serves as the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, one of the largest and most diversified holding companies in the world. Often referred to in media as the "Oracle of Omaha" or the "Sage of Omaha," Buffett built his fortune over more than six decades through a disciplined approach to value investing, a philosophy he adopted from his mentor Benjamin Graham at Columbia Business School. Born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, to a family with deep roots in business and politics — his father, Howard Buffett, served as a U.S. congressman — Buffett displayed entrepreneurial instincts from an early age and made his first stock purchase as a child. He went on to form his own investment partnership in the 1950s, eventually acquiring a controlling stake in a struggling textile manufacturer named Berkshire Hathaway and transforming it into a sprawling conglomerate encompassing insurance, energy, railroads, consumer goods, and dozens of other industries. For more than half a century, Buffett guided Berkshire Hathaway's growth as its chairman and chief executive officer, stepping down from the CEO role in 2025 while remaining chairman. He is also one of history's most prominent philanthropists, having pledged to donate 99 percent of his wealth to charitable causes and co-founding The Giving Pledge in 2010 alongside Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates.

Early Life

Warren Edward Buffett was born on August 30, 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska. He was the second of three children and the only son of Howard Buffett, a businessman and stockbroker who later served four terms as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, and Leila (née Stahl) Buffett. Growing up during the Great Depression and its aftermath, the young Buffett was exposed to the world of finance and commerce from an early age through his father's work in the securities industry.

Buffett demonstrated an aptitude for numbers and business as a child. He showed an early fascination with making and saving money, reportedly going door-to-door in his Omaha neighborhood selling chewing gum, Coca-Cola bottles, and weekly magazines. As a teenager, he took on paper routes and developed various small entrepreneurial ventures. He purchased his first stock at age eleven, buying three shares of Cities Service preferred stock at $38 per share — an experience that, despite modest returns, cemented his lifelong interest in the stock market.

By the time he was a teenager, Buffett had already filed his first tax return, claiming a deduction for his bicycle as a business expense related to his paper route. He also partnered with a friend to purchase a used pinball machine, which they placed in a local barbershop — an enterprise that grew to include several machines across different locations in Omaha. By the age of sixteen, Buffett had accumulated savings of several thousand dollars, a substantial sum for a teenager in the mid-1940s. His early experiences in business instilled in him both the mechanics of earning money and the principle of reinvesting profits — concepts that would form the foundation of his investment career.

Education

In 1947, at the age of seventeen, Buffett enrolled at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied business. He spent two years at Wharton before transferring to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where he completed his bachelor's degree in business administration at the age of twenty.

After graduating from Nebraska, Buffett applied to Harvard Business School but was rejected. He then discovered that Benjamin Graham, the author of The Intelligent Investor and a pioneer of value investing and security analysis, was teaching at Columbia Business School. Buffett enrolled at Columbia and studied under Graham, whose philosophy of buying securities trading below their intrinsic value profoundly shaped Buffett's approach to investing. He graduated from Columbia in 1951 with a Master of Science in economics. He also attended the New York Institute of Finance to deepen his background in economics and financial analysis before embarking on his professional career.

Career

Early Career and Partnership with Benjamin Graham

After completing his studies at Columbia, Buffett returned to Omaha and worked as a stockbroker. In 1954, he accepted a position at Graham-Newman Corp., the investment firm run by his mentor Benjamin Graham, in New York City. Working directly under Graham gave Buffett practical experience applying the principles of value investing — seeking stocks that were undervalued relative to their intrinsic worth based on fundamental analysis. When Graham retired and dissolved the partnership in 1956, Buffett returned to Omaha to strike out on his own.

Buffett Partnership Ltd.

In 1956, at the age of twenty-five, Buffett established Buffett Partnership Ltd. with $105,100 in capital pooled from seven limited partners, including family members and friends. Over the following years, the partnership delivered consistently strong returns that substantially outperformed the broader market. Buffett's approach during this period involved identifying deeply undervalued stocks — sometimes referred to as "cigar butt" investments — and taking concentrated positions. The partnership's track record attracted additional investors and capital, and by the early 1960s, Buffett was managing several million dollars.

During the 1960s, through the partnership, Buffett began accumulating shares of Berkshire Hathaway, a New England-based textile manufacturing company that was trading at a price below the value of its net working capital. By 1965, Buffett had acquired a controlling interest in the company. He dissolved the Buffett Partnership in 1969, distributing assets to partners and retaining his own shares in Berkshire Hathaway as the primary vehicle for his future investment activities.

Building Berkshire Hathaway

Buffett emerged as chairman and majority shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway in 1970. Although the textile operations that originally defined the company continued for some years, Buffett recognized early on that the textile business faced structural headwinds and began redirecting Berkshire's capital into more profitable enterprises — most notably the insurance industry. The acquisition of National Indemnity Company in 1967 provided Berkshire with a steady stream of insurance "float" — premiums collected before claims were paid — which Buffett deployed as a low-cost source of investment capital.

In 1978, fellow investor and long-time associate Charlie Munger joined Berkshire Hathaway as vice chairman. Munger's influence on Buffett's thinking was substantial; he encouraged Buffett to move beyond Graham's strict emphasis on statistically cheap stocks and toward investing in high-quality businesses with durable competitive advantages — what Buffett would come to call "wonderful companies at fair prices." The Buffett-Munger partnership became one of the most celebrated in American business history, lasting until Munger's death in November 2023.

Over the decades, Berkshire Hathaway grew from a struggling textile company into one of the world's largest conglomerates. The company acquired a vast portfolio of wholly owned subsidiaries across industries including insurance (GEICO, General Re), energy (Berkshire Hathaway Energy), railroads (BNSF Railway), consumer products, manufacturing, and retail. Simultaneously, Berkshire maintained an enormous public equity portfolio with substantial stakes in companies such as Apple Inc., Coca-Cola, American Express, and Bank of America.

Investment Philosophy

Buffett's investment philosophy is rooted in the value investing framework taught to him by Benjamin Graham at Columbia, though it evolved significantly over time under the influence of Munger and through Buffett's own experience. Central tenets of his approach include: investing within one's "circle of competence," seeking businesses with strong and sustainable competitive advantages (which Buffett often describes as "economic moats"), favoring companies with capable and honest management, and insisting on purchasing at prices that offer a "margin of safety" relative to intrinsic value.

Buffett has long emphasized the power of compound interest as a driver of long-term wealth creation. His annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, published since the 1970s, have become required reading in the investment community for their plain-spoken analysis of business fundamentals, markets, and capital allocation. In these letters, Buffett has repeatedly warned against speculation, excessive leverage, and the use of complex financial derivatives — which he famously described as "financial weapons of mass destruction" in his 2002 letter to shareholders.

The "Buffett Indicator," a metric comparing total U.S. stock market capitalization to gross domestic product, has been widely tracked by investors as a valuation gauge. As of early 2026, the indicator suggested elevated equity valuations, prompting renewed discussion among market analysts.

Key Transactions and Crisis-Era Investments

Throughout his career, Buffett demonstrated a willingness to deploy large amounts of capital during periods of financial distress when others were reluctant to invest. During the financial crisis of 2007–2008, Buffett made a $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs in September 2008, purchasing perpetual preferred shares carrying a 10 percent annual dividend along with warrants to buy common stock at a favorable price. Goldman Sachs later redeemed Buffett's preferred shares in March 2011 for approximately $5.65 billion, which included a 10 percent premium.

Also during the financial crisis, Buffett helped facilitate the Dow Chemical Company's $19 billion acquisition of Rohm and Haas by providing financing. In a September 2008 interview, Buffett characterized the economic situation as an "economic Pearl Harbor," underscoring the severity of the crisis while simultaneously expressing confidence in the long-term resilience of the American economy.

Berkshire's portfolio management remained active into the 2020s. In the fourth quarter of the most recent reporting period, Berkshire Hathaway continued to adjust its equity holdings, with notable purchases in several dividend-paying stocks. During Buffett's final quarter as CEO, the company continued selling more stocks than it purchased, reflecting a cautious stance amid elevated market valuations.

CEO Succession

At Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting on May 3, 2025, Buffett announced that he had requested the board of directors to appoint Greg Abel, who had been serving as vice chairman of Berkshire's non-insurance operations, to succeed him as chief executive officer by the end of 2025. Buffett stated he would remain as chairman of the board. The transition marked the end of more than five decades of Buffett's leadership as CEO. As of early 2026, Abel was preparing to publish his first annual shareholder letter, an event closely watched by Wall Street and the broader investment community given the decades-long tradition of Buffett's own shareholder communications.

Tax Contributions and Public Statements

Buffett has been outspoken about corporate and individual tax responsibilities. In public statements, he noted that if approximately 800 companies paid the Internal Revenue Service at rates comparable to Berkshire Hathaway, no American would owe "a dime" in federal taxes, including Social Security taxes. This stance attracted attention in light of broader debates over tax policy affecting corporations and high-net-worth individuals. Buffett has previously advocated for higher taxes on the wealthy, famously noting that his effective tax rate was lower than that of his secretary — a position that contributed to discussions around what became informally known as the "Buffett Rule."

Personal Life

Warren Buffett has lived in Omaha, Nebraska, for nearly his entire life. He is known for a lifestyle that emphasizes frugality relative to his wealth. He has resided in the same house in the Dundee neighborhood of Omaha that he purchased in 1958, and he is known for his preference for simple meals and everyday consumer products.

Buffett was married to Susan Thompson Buffett from 1952 until her death in 2004. The couple had three children. Though Warren and Susan Buffett lived separately beginning in 1977 — with Susan relocating to San Francisco — they remained married and close until her death. With Susan's encouragement, Buffett began a relationship with Astrid Menks, who had been a companion since the late 1970s. Buffett and Menks married in 2006.

Buffett's frugal habits have been a consistent theme in media coverage throughout his career. Despite managing one of the largest pools of capital in American history, he has publicly adhered to modest personal spending and has described his approach to life as shaped by the values of his upbringing in Omaha.

Philanthropy

Buffett has pledged to give away 99 percent of his wealth to philanthropic causes, with the bulk of his charitable giving directed through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Beginning in 2006, Buffett initiated annual donations of Berkshire Hathaway shares to the Gates Foundation and to foundations run by his three children, in what became one of the largest philanthropic commitments in history.

In 2010, Buffett, along with Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, launched The Giving Pledge, an initiative encouraging the world's wealthiest individuals and families to commit the majority of their wealth to philanthropy either during their lifetimes or in their wills. As of the mid-2020s, more than 200 individuals and couples from over two dozen countries had signed the pledge.

Recognition

Buffett has received numerous accolades and honors over the course of his career. In 2011, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, by President Barack Obama.

Global media outlets have long referred to Buffett as the "Oracle of Omaha" and the "Sage of Omaha," epithets reflecting his track record as an investor and the influence of his public commentary on financial markets. Forbes has consistently ranked Buffett among the wealthiest people in the world for decades; as of January 2026, Forbes estimated his net worth at approximately $148.9 billion, placing him among the ten wealthiest individuals globally.

Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, often described as the "Woodstock of Capitalism," draws tens of thousands of attendees each year and has become a fixture on the calendar of American business and investing. Buffett's annual shareholder letters are archived and studied by investors, business students, and executives around the world.

His investment principles — including the emphasis on buying quality businesses at reasonable prices, the importance of long-term thinking, and the dangers of speculation and leverage — have influenced generations of investors and shaped discourse in the field of finance. Financial publications and advisors regularly cite Buffett's principles in guidance aimed at individual investors, including advice on retirement savings and wealth preservation.

Legacy

From 1970 through 2025, Buffett presided over Berkshire Hathaway's transformation from a declining textile manufacturer into one of the world's most valuable companies and a diversified conglomerate encompassing dozens of industries. The company's performance under his leadership — with Berkshire Hathaway's Class A shares rising from approximately $15 per share in 1965 to prices exceeding $600,000 per share by the mid-2020s — represents one of the longest and most successful track records of capital allocation in the history of public markets.

Buffett's influence extends beyond financial returns. His annual shareholder letters, his public commentary on markets and business, and his personal example of frugality and philanthropy have established him as a central figure in American business culture. The concept of value investing, while originated by Graham and others, gained its broadest popular audience through Buffett's career and public profile.

His decision to step down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway in 2025 while remaining as chairman marked the beginning of a new chapter for the company he built. The appointment of Greg Abel as his successor was closely watched by markets, shareholders, and the financial press, representing one of the most significant leadership transitions in modern corporate history.

Buffett's philanthropic commitments, including the pledge to donate virtually all of his wealth and the founding of The Giving Pledge, have reshaped expectations about the social responsibilities of extreme wealth. The Giving Pledge has attracted participation from hundreds of billionaires worldwide and has contributed to a broader cultural shift in attitudes toward large-scale philanthropy.

References

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