BRK.A
New boss, same giant
Berkshire Hathaway just turned the page on one of the market’s most famous dynasties. Warren Buffett stepped down as chairman and handed the title to his son, Howard Buffett, while staying on as chairman emeritus. Greg Abel, who took over as CEO at the end of 2025, remains the one actually steering the ship.
That matters because Berkshire isn’t some sleepy holding company in the background. It’s a $1.091 trillion beast, and when it moves, people squint at the tea leaves like it’s a sports playoff bracket.
The market is already doing the comparison game
Over the last five years, Berkshire Class B shares have outpaced the S&P 500 ETF SPY, but the short term has been less flattering. This year, Berkshire has lagged the index, which is basically the investing equivalent of your favorite veteran quarterback starting the season 0-3.
- Berkshire sold down its Capital One stake by 58%
- It boosted Alphabet by 658%, making GOOG a top-three holding
- It opened a small position in D.R. Horton
- It fully exited Constellation Brands
So yes, Berkshire is still very much in the business of changing its mind with a giant balance sheet and a poker face.
What retail investors should actually care about
The title change is mostly symbolic, but symbolism matters when the company in question is built on a cult of Buffett. The bigger story is whether Berkshire’s culture-and-capital discipline still works without Warren personally being the face in the room.
Retail investors who don’t want to play stock-picker roulette may also remember Buffett’s favorite advice: buy cheap index funds and let compounding do the heavy lifting. In other words, Berkshire is still making the case for Berkshire and for boring old VOO at the same time.
Big picture: the chairmanship handoff doesn’t change the fact that Berkshire is still a capital-allocation machine — but it does kick off the era where investors have to judge the machine without the myth.