Warren Buffett will remain chairman at Berkshire Hathaway when Greg Abel takes over as CEO in 2026

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — When Greg Abel becomes Berkshire Hathaway's new CEO next year he will of course take on additional responsibilities, but with Warren Buffett remaining as chairman, the surprise change announced at the annual meeting over the weekend is in some ways just another milestone in the company's succession plans.

Shareholders have been worrying about how to replace the world's greatest investor for decades — even before the 94-year-old hit a typical retirement age. So years ago, Berkshire's board started devoting part of every meeting to the succession question.

Then in 2018, Buffett began publicly handing over the reins when he put Abel in charge of all of Berkshire's dozens of manufacturing, retail, railroad and utility businesses. Fellow Vice Chairman Ajit Jain was given responsibility for the insurance companies including Geico, while Buffett kept responsibility for investing Berkshire's billions. Berkshire confirmed that Abel would be Buffett's successor in 2021 after former Vice Chairman Charlie Munger let it slip at a shareholder meeting.

Starting next year, Abel will have the final say on all of Berkshire's companies and investments, but he will also still have Buffett, Jain and two investment managers — Ted Weschler and Todd Combs — coming to the office every day to help. And the CEOs of Berkshire's many different subsidiaries handle all the day-to-day operations.

“Greg’s already been doing it for a couple of years, so his job really doesn’t change. His title does, but his job’s not really changing that much,” said Bob Miles, who has taught a course about Buffett and Berkshire at the University of Nebraska-Omaha for 15 years.

Berkshire's board approved the 62-year-old Abel's promotion to CEO and kept Buffett as chairman on Sunday. Berkshire Class B shares fell more than 5% Monday in response to the news after hitting an all-time high Friday, but many investors praised the plan.

“I think it gives Warren a little more bandwidth instead of running this conglomerate," Macrae Sykes, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It gives Greg more transparency on the opps with also Warren still being his mentor as chairman,”

In six decades at the helm, Buffett turned a Massachusetts textile company into a sprawling but nimble conglomerate that owns everything from Daily Queen and See’s Candies to BNSF Railway and massive insurance and utility companies. As the company grew, Buffett's reputation grew with it as shares of Berkshire Hathaway climbed steadily, exceeding major indexes by wide margins and returning an average 19.9% each year to investors versus 10.4% for the Standard & Poor’s 500.

The decision to continue with the Oracle of Omaha, as Buffett is known, as head of the board differs from the succession plans laid out in the event of Buffett's death. The billionaire has long said that Howard Buffett, the second-born of his three children, should become chairman when he is gone to protect Berkshire's culture.

Abel will take over in a precarious time as the U.S. launches trade wars against friend and foe alike, which Buffett has called a mistake. But that could also create investment opportunities for Berkshire if there is a crisis.

Then there is Berkshire’s $348 billion in cash.

Buffett says he doesn’t see many bargains to invest that money in now, not even Berkshire’s own stock, but he assured some of the estimated 40,000 attendees of the company’s annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, over the weekend that one day the company would be “bombarded with opportunities.”

Abel, a low-key Canadian with a love a hockey who makes it a priority to coach his kids' teams, said Saturday that he wouldn’t change Berkshire’s approach to investing, which he learned from Buffett. Maintaining Berkshire’s fortress-like balance sheet will always be a priority, he said.

Eventually, Berkshire might have to consider paying a dividend, which Buffett always resisted because he believed he could deliver better returns by reinvesting the cash. For now, Buffett and Abel want to keep building cash, so they are prepared when opportunities arise.

Buffett endorsed Abel, vowing to keep all of his shares that give him control of 30% of Berkshire Hathaway. Abel is a more hands-on manager than Buffett, asking managers tough questions and encouraging them to collaborate with other subsidiaries when it makes sense.

“It’s way better with Greg than with me because I didn’t want to work as hard as he works and I can get away with it because we’ve got a basically good business -- a very good business — and I wasn’t in danger of you firing me by virtue of the ownership and the fact that we could do pretty well,” Buffett said. "The fact that you can do pretty well doesn’t mean you couldn’t do better, and Greg can do better at many things,” he said.

The CEOs of Berkshire subsidiaries who report to Abel have praised his management style of personal accountability, but also autonomy. See's Candy CEO Pat Egan worked with Abel at Berkshire's utility unit for years before he took over the candymaker six years ago and said Abel makes sure he's considered every contingency.

“He’s allowed me to make a lot of decisions that he may or may not have agreed with, but he’ll support us at the end of the day, no matter what as long as we’re operating with integrity and principles and the long game," Egan said.

But Morningstar analyst Greggory Warren wrote that Buffett's succession announcement left him with plenty of questions and Abel will have to prove himself.

“Abel, in our view, will be held to a different standard than Buffett, with a greater focus on how well Berkshire is performing—especially with it being likely that there will be some churn in the company’s shareholders as we move past the end of an era for the firm,” Warren said.

Buffett has always delegated the decisions about how to distribute his fortune, worth nearly $160 billion, to others through annual share donations to the Gates Foundation and four family foundations run by his children.

The Gates Foundation has received the biggest donations worth more than $40 billion since he started giving away his fortune in 2006.

He said last summer that his three children will decide how to distribute his remaining fortune after his death, but donations to the Gates Foundation will end. Buffett has said he expects it to take a decade to give away all his shares after his death, ensuring extended support for Abel from the family.

AP Business writer Bernard Condon is in New York City. AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman contributed to this report from New York City.

FILE - Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Greg Abel poses for pictures with shareholders while touring the booths Berkshires companies set up, Friday, May 3, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Josh Funk, File)

FILE - Berkshire Hathaway shareholders line up to take selfies with Greg Abel Friday, May 3, 2024, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Josh Funk, File)

FILE - Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Greg Abel is seen at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Neb., on May 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)