Greg Abel rules out break-up, stressing continuity with Buffett

(This is the Warren Buffett Watch newsletter, news and analysis, covering all things Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. You can sign up Here To get it in your inbox every Friday evening.)

Six minutes after the meeting began, a large Buffett “jersey” with the number 60, reflecting his 60 years as Berkshire CEO, raised to the rafters at the CHI Health Center arena.

This was followed by a three minute video Produced by Berkshire, it shows six decades of video and photographs.

Buffett later spoke from his seat on the floor “This is not my schedule for today, but there are two anniversaries we are celebrating today.”

It’s been nearly a year since the board approved Abel as CEO after Buffett’s surprise announcement that he would resign, and “you couldn’t have made a better decision.”

“This has been a 100 percent success. Greg does everything I do and then some, and he does it better in every situation. He’s the right guy.”

It’s also been nearly 10 years since Berkshire bought $35 billion worth of Apple stock. Buffett said that turned into roughly $185 billion and “I didn’t have to do anything.”

Praises outgoing CEO Tim Cook Thank you for making this investment so successful.

The first Q&A session started like this: Deepfake video version of “Warren from Ohama” We ask Abel why Berkshire shareholders should hold their shares for the long term.

In his response, Abel emphasized that the company currently has almost $400 billion in cash, which he said “creates a unique opportunity” for investment.

If there is a “strong value proposition,” Berkshire “will be prepared to act decisively and with significant capital. That’s what it’s there for.”

Later, during the lunch break, viewers of the CNBC.com livestream and arena attendees watched Buffett’s live interview by CNBC’s Becky Quick.

Asked why it’s not a good environment for Berkshire to invest right now“We’ve never had people in such a gambling mood,” Buffett said. [in the financial markets] But that doesn’t mean the investment sucks.

“That means the prices of a lot of things are going to look ridiculous.”

He also reiterated his long-standing practice of investing only in companies he understands, saying, “I understand that fewer businesses are a percentage of the whole than they were a decade ago. I haven’t learned new industries in several years.”

all 25 minute interview appears below.

“Is there a point where it doesn’t make sense for Berkshire to be a holding company, where you would break up the company?” he was asked. Abel replied: “Absolutely not“

“We see that our group structure works without bureaucracy and inflated costs.

“So we don’t think we’ll divest our subsidiaries or spin off a group.”

Abel and insurance chief Ajit Jain recalled J’s interaction between Buffett and Charlie Munger in years past.Asked if Berkshire will insure ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

“The short answer is, it depends on the price.” This caused laughter from the audience and praise from Abel. “I liked Charlie’s answer.”

Berkshire made a statement before the meeting started. There was an 18% increase in operating profit in the first quarter; Insurance underwriting increased by more than 28%.

In what he called a one-time announcement two months ago, Berkshire said it resumed share buybacks on March 4 After a gap of almost two years. SEC filing It did not contain any details.

But a week later, Berkshire filed an application. definitive proxy statement Before the annual meeting, which included the counting of the company’s outstanding shares as of March 4, registration date.

As we reported at the time, a comparison with a share count at the end of January revealed that Berkshire bought back the equivalent of 309 Class A shares that day, worth about $226 million.

Some investors hoped this would be the start of an aggressive buyback.

At least, nothing like this has happened so far.

of the company First quarter of 10-Q The report released on Saturday stated that Berkshire repurchased $234 million worth of shares during March; This was only $8 million more than the amount on March 4, even though shares fell toward the end of the month.

And the number of shares listed as of April 14 in Q10 shows no significant buybacks in the first two weeks of last month either.

access point reports “Attendance has decreased significantly this year” [18-975-seat] Only a little more than half the arena is full,” but he adds: “No other corporate convention comes close to the crowds at Woodstock for the Berkshire Capitalists.”

CNBC.com Yun Li wrote that the exhibit hall, where Berkshire-themed merchandise is sold, has “a little more breathing room this year.”

“Unlike previous years, the queues were shorter and the crowds were noticeably thinner.”

legendary merchant Paul Tudor Jones Now, he says he’s sorry for belittling Warren Buffett’s investment successes over the years and says he caught the bull market for U.S. stocks by saying he “was in the right place at the right time.”

visible on Invest Like The Best In the podcast with Patrick O’Shaughnessy, CEO of Positive Sum, Jones admits that Buffett was an “astonishing genius” at understanding the power of compound interest and staying calm in the face of stock losses when he was just 9 years old.

“Warren, I’m so sorry if you hear this. You are the OG of compound interest and I wish I were one-tenth as smart as you.”

Here is the episode Jones talks about Buffett and how trading and investing compare:

Charity auction “A Seat at the Table“Lunch with Warren Buffett of the Golden State Warriors Stephen Curry and her lifestyle entrepreneur husband Ayesha Curryis expanding to include a series of weekly, limited, timed online auctions offering signed collectibles.

Items for sale include a Warriors jersey signed by Stephen Curry and Buffett’s signature on a $1 bill.

Tenders will be held between 29 April and 15 May. ebay.com/glide_eatlearnplay.

The luncheon auction will begin on May 7 and end on May 14. A Seat at the Table.

Proceeds will be shared among San Franciscans Glide Foundation and the Currys To eat. To learn. Play. Basis it is “trying to transform the school experience for a generation of Oakland students.”

Holdings as of December 31, 2025, as reported. Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F filing On February 17, 2026, except:

A complete list of holdings and current market values ​​is available on CNBC.com’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

Please send me any questions or comments about the newsletter at: alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (We’re sorry, but we do not forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)

Additionally, reading Buffett’s annual letters to shareholders is highly recommended. There are people gathered on Berkshire’s website here.

— Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch