Warren Buffett is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, marking the next stage in the leadership transition at the top of the $1 trillion conglomerate he led for more than six decades.

Buffett, 96, will assume the role of chairman emeritus and will step into his new position with immediate effect, the company announced Friday.

His eldest son, Howard, is set to become Berkshire Hathaway’s new chairman, a component of a long-anticipated succession plan.

Howard Buffett has served on the Berkshire Hathaway board since 1993.

Warren Buffett, whom a legion of financial market followers revere as the Oracle of Omaha, will remain a director.

He had served as Berkshire Hathaway’s chairman since 1970, but he had assumed control of the struggling New England textile company in 1965.

Greg Abel assumed the role of CEO of the $1 trillion conglomerate from Buffett at the outset of this year, although Buffett persisted in coming into the office daily to scout for new investments and deals and to proffer Abel any counsel.

It remains uncertain whether Buffett will alter his routine in any way now.

“I have served Berkshire since 1965,” Buffett said in a letter to shareholders.

“Sixty-plus years in, I still have the best job in the world.

That is not something many people my age can say, and I have never felt better about what comes next.”

Investor Adam Mead, who wrote “The Complete Financial History of Berkshire Hathaway,” said Buffett seems to be trying to lessen the impact on Berkshire when he eventually dies by taking this step now.

Berkshire’s announcement didn’t reveal any health issues for Buffett, but Mead said “He’s now 96, so even a cold could be a health scare.”

Buffett expressed his confidence in Abel and his son Howard to lead Berkshire Hathaway.

"Greg runs the company, while Howard will guard its culture and values – both worth more than anything on our balance sheet," he said.

"Think of Howard as a policy that the shareholders own and hope never to claim against."

Abel took charge of all of Berkshire’s non-insurance businesses in 2018, when he was promoted to vice chairman, so he knows the various companies well, including BNSF railroad, the utilities and manufacturing operations, as well as name brands like Dairy Queen and See’s Candy.

But CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert said investors still have questions about how well Abel will be able to deploy Berkshire’s massive $365 billion cash pile.

“Berkshire stock was awarded a premium because of its financial strengths and because of this famed investor who was allocating capital.

I think it’s naive to assume that this is business as usual.

It’s not,” Seifert said.

“What this does is amplify some of the execution risk in the strategy and the significance of the transition.”

Michael Withers, a professor of management at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, said Buffett took a deliberate approach to Berkshire Hathaway’s succession plans and carried out the transition step by step.

“Buffett seems to have grasped that succeeding him wasn’t merely about finding another extraordinary leader,” he said.

“It was about building a structure capable of preserving what makes Berkshire different long after he has stepped away.

The test going forward will be whether Abel and Howard can honor that legacy while still allowing Berkshire room to adapt to a market that looks very different from the one Buffett mastered.”

Buffett’s fortune has been amassed through Berkshire Hathaway stock.

Buffett built the company into an investing conglomerate and an icon of Wall Street by buying insurance companies and reinvesting the money from premiums in stocks and other companies.

In 2024, Berkshire Hathaway became the first non-tech company valued at more than $1 trillion.

Buffett, a longstanding philanthropist, has donated stock valued at approximately $66 billion since 2006, the majority of which has been directed to the foundation of his friend Bill Gates.

This summer, however, he declared that his three children would henceforth assume full responsibility for all charitable decisions and oversee the distribution of the remainder of his fortune by the end of 2034.

Buffett’s perspective on finance has generated a gravitational force of its own.

When Berkshire Hathaway discloses the stocks that the company has acquired or divested in public filings, it can send shockwaves through the markets.

While he was CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, the company's returns were nearly double those of the S&P 500, delivering a 19.9% compound annual growth rate versus the index's 10.4% gain.

“Warren’s impact on Berkshire and its owners has no equal in the history of American business,” Abel said in a prepared statement.

“The culture Warren built and the values he championed will remain at the heart of Berkshire, and Howard will be their guardian.”

Berkshire Hathaway's shares experienced a modest decline during Friday morning's trading session.