Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Originally a textile manufacturer, the company transitioned into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of chairman and CEO Warren Buffett (from 1970 to 2025) and vice chairman Charlie Munger (from 1978 to 2023). Greg Abel succeeded Buffett as CEO at the beginning of 2026. Buffett personally owns 38.4% of the Class A voting shares of Berkshire Hathaway, representing a 15.1% overall economic interest in the company.
The company is often compared to an investment fund; between 1965, when Buffett gained control of the company, and 2023, the company's shareholder returns amounted to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.8% compared to a 10.2% CAGR for the S&P 500. However, in the 10 year span from 2014 through 2023, Berkshire Hathaway produced a CAGR of 11.8% for shareholders, compared to a 12.0% CAGR for the S&P 500. From 1965 to 2023, the stock price had negative performance in only eleven years. In August 2024, Berkshire Hathaway became the eighth US public company and the first non-technology company to be valued at over $1 trillion on the list of public corporations by market capitalization.
Berkshire Hathaway is ranked 5th on the Fortune 500 and 9th on the Fortune Global 500. In surveys taken in the 2000s and 2010s by Barron's, Berkshire was named among the "Most Respected" companies by professional investors. Berkshire is one of the ten largest components of the S&P 500 and is on the list of largest employers in the United States. Its class A shares have the highest per-share price of any public company in the world, reaching $700,000 in August 2024, because the board of directors has historically been opposed to stock splits.
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