In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Buffett said that it wasn’t any strategic imperative or internal pressure that led to his decision to step down. Instead, it was the realisation that he could no longer match the energy and pace of Greg Abel, the man long expected to succeed him.
“The difference in energy level and just how much he could accomplish in a 10-hour day compared to what I could accomplish in a 10-hour day—the difference became more and more dramatic,” he said, speaking about Abel. “He just was so much more effective at getting things done.”
Buffett stunned shareholders and even Abel when he used the closing moments of Berkshire Hathaway’s May 3 annual meeting to announce he would step down as CEO in December. While he will remain chairman of the board, he said he has no set timeline for how long he’ll stay in that role.
The shift, Buffett said, has been years in the making. “I didn’t really start getting old, for some strange reason, until I was about 90,” he said. “But when you start getting old, it does become—it’s irreversible.” He described how subtle changes—losing balance, forgetting names, struggling to read faint newsprint—eventually led to the decision.
Buffett took control of Berkshire in 1965 when it was a failing textile business and spent the next six decades building it into a powerhouse with holdings in insurance, railroads, energy, and iconic consumer brands like Duracell and Dairy Queen. Its investment portfolio, including stakes in Apple and American Express, has made it one of the most closely followed companies in the world.Calling Abel a rare talent, Buffett said it became clear that keeping the top job any longer would be unfair. “Really great talent is rare,” he said. “It’s rare in business. It’s rare in capital allocation. It’s rare in almost every human activity you can name… The more years that Berkshire gets out of Greg, the better.”Abel, 62, joined the company through Berkshire’s 1999 investment in MidAmerican Energy and steadily rose through the ranks. He was named vice chairman in 2018 and put in charge of the company’s noninsurance operations, before being publicly designated as Buffett’s successor in 2021.
Buffett said he always believed he’d step aside when someone else could do the job better. “I thought I would remain CEO as long as I thought I was more useful than anybody else, in terms of being CEO,” he said. “And it surprised me, you know, how long it went.”
Despite the transition, Buffett said he has no intention of slowing down completely. “My health is fine, in the sense that I feel good every day,” he said. “I’m here at the office and I get to work with people I love, that they like me pretty well, and we have a good time.”
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Though he acknowledged that age has dulled some abilities, Buffett said he remains confident in his judgment. “I don’t have any trouble making decisions about something that I was making decisions on 20 years ago or 40 years ago or 60 years ago,” he said. “I will be useful here if there’s a panic in the market because I don’t get fearful when things go down in price or everybody else gets scared. And that really isn’t a function of age.”
He said Abel shares that mindset—and is also a capable investor. “He will have ideas about where money should be invested,” Buffett said.
While the official handover is still months away, Buffett made clear that he has no plans to disappear from the company he built. “I’m not going to sit at home and watch soap operas,” he said with a laugh. “My interests are still the same.”
