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Buffett backs new CEO Abel with ‘huge endorsement’ in CNBC interview

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Warren Buffett tells CNBC’s Becky Quick he’d rather buy a new one Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel manages his money better than “the best investment advisors or the best CEOs in the United States.”

Buffett’s shares in the company are now worth $147.5 billion, so by running Berkshire, Abel will essentially also manage nearly all of Buffett’s massive net worth.

Quick interviewed Buffett just a few days later in May. announced that he planned to resign as CEO at the end of the year Wednesday was his last day at workalthough he will continue to serve as chairman of the board of directors and still plans to come to the office every day.

Greg Abel speaks at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting on May 3, 2025 in Omaha, Nebraska.

CNBC

CNBC released brief excerpts from that conversation on Friday to help promote a special that will include the full interview later this month.

In clipsBuffett promised that Abel would be a “decision maker” and could accomplish more in a week than he could in a month.

He praised Abel for not being a “twisted individual” and said that although he would be running a company with 400,000 employees, he had “lived what seemed like a normal life” and that “he has a better chance of being here a hundred years from now than any company I can think of.”

Although Buffett won’t be onstage at the annual meeting in May, he told Becky “maybe you’ll interview me” during CNBC’s coverage of the event.

Here’s video of Becky’s report on Friday’s “Squawk Box” interview and transcript of excerpts from Buffett’s interview.

WARREN BUFFET: Everything will be the same. You know, I’ll go in.

I won’t – I won’t be speaking there at the annual meeting, but I will be in the directors’ section.

Maybe you’ll interview me – (laughs) – at halftime or something like that, who knows?

But Greg will decide. [I] I can’t imagine how much more he can achieve in a week than me [in] a month. I mean, it’s just…

He is also not a distorted individual. You know, he likes to play ice hockey with his kids.

And… he lives what seems like a normal life. And my guess is that if the neighbors didn’t know who he was, they would have no idea that on January 1st, he would be a decision maker at a company that employs close to 400,000 people and has plans for nearly fifty or a hundred years into the future.

And who knows what will happen? But I think it has a better chance of being here a hundred years from now than any other company I can think of.

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WARREN BUFFET: And when you get right down to it, Greg has done more surgeries than I have.

I mean, he went to England to manage something. He, you know, we, we came to Omaha once to run a business for a few years.

And he knows that there is no secret formula that only CEOs have or anything like that.

That’s why I’d rather have Greg manage my money than any of the best investment advisors or best CEOs in the United States.

BECKY FAST: This is a huge support.

WARREN BUFFET: This is a great support, but it is a support that we also provide. (Laughs)

And – and I’ll make sure he manages his money, you know, actually I –

He knows his job.

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Later in the day, part of the interview aired again on “Money Matters,” followed by CNBC’s Senior Markets Commentator Michael Santoli’s thoughts on Berkshire’s well-planned transition to a new CEO.