Berkshire Hathaway named Warren Buffett chairman emeritus on Friday and elected his son, Howard Buffett, chairman of the board. Capital-allocation decisions, including buybacks, still rest with CEO Greg Abel, but Berkshire's repurchase policy now requires him to consult Howard rather than Warren before buying back stock.
Berkshire Hathaway named Warren Buffett chairman emeritus, effective immediately, on Friday. Howard Buffett, a Berkshire director since 1993, becomes the conglomerate's new chairman. Warren Buffett isn't leaving the company; he remains a board member.
The handoff ends a run in which Buffett had chaired Berkshire for 56 years, dating to 1970. It also lands about eight months after Greg Abel took over as CEO in January, a move that handed him final say over roughly $365 billion in cash and Treasury bills.
A chairman for the culture
Buffett described the split of duties in a letter to shareholders released Friday. According to the Motley Fool: "Greg runs the company; Howard will guard its culture and values". Howard Buffett has spent 33 years on Berkshire's board, and his job is to keep the company operating the way it always has.
Warren Buffett's emeritus title recognizes his contributions, and the company said he will keep offering his judgment and perspective.
Who controls the $365 billion
Deciding what to do with Berkshire's cash belongs to the CEO, not the chairman. Abel spelled that out in his first annual letter to shareholders in February, stating that capital-allocation decisions ultimately rest with him. That letter also restated Berkshire's policy of buying back stock only when it trades below a conservative estimate of its worth, and of withholding a dividend as long as retained dollars are reasonably likely to create more than a dollar of market value for shareholders.
Nothing in Friday's announcement changes those policies. Berkshire's businesses keep handing Abel more money to allocate: second-quarter operating earnings grew 16% year over year to about $13 billion, though currency moves on Berkshire's overseas debt flattered the comparison.
The buyback policy has a new name in it
The chairman does appear in one capital decision. Berkshire's repurchase program lets the CEO buy back stock only after consulting with the chairman of the board on whether shares are selling below a cautious estimate of value, wording that dates to a 2025 amendment. Until Friday, Abel's consultation partner was Warren Buffett. Now it's Howard.
Buybacks have been picking up since. After a 2025 with none at all, Berkshire repurchased about $235 million of stock in the first quarter of 2026, then about $4.5 billion in the second. Buying accelerated through the quarter — nothing in April, nearly $750 million in May, and almost $3.8 billion in June, at average prices of about $476 and $488 per Class B share.
As of the report, Class B shares traded around $509, putting the stock's valuation at nearly 1.5 times book value.
Source: The Motley Fool
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