Berkshire Hathaway

• Date Founded: 1839
• Industry: Holdings Company
• Corporate Headquarters: Omaha, Nebraska
• Type: Public

Berkshire Hathaway is one of the largest and most profitable holding companies in the world. Holding companies are those that own shares in other companies, often managing and profiting from them. Berkshire Hathaway was founded as a textile mill that was purchased by investor Warren Buffett. Buffett assumed leadership of the company and restructured it into a holding company. He used it to purchase insurance companies, which he believed to be consistently safe, profitable investments. Buffett then used those profits to purchase shares in other companies. He often purchased controlling interests and reorganized them as subsidiaries of Berkshire Hathaway.

Berkshire Hathaway owns controlling and minority shares in numerous companies and industries including Coca-Cola, Geico, McLane Company, and Apple Inc. The firm’s network of investments has allowed it to weather economic downturns. Under Buffett’s leadership (and in 2026), the company’s stock prices for class A shares soared from less than twelve dollars per share to more than $755,000 per share in December 2025, when he retired from his role in the company.

History

The modern giant Berkshire Hathaway began as a textile company. When the company was struggling, Warren Buffett, an investor, decided to buy shares in it to make a quick profit. Buffett had hoped that the company would later attempt to buy back the shares at a higher price. Berkshire Hathaway did attempt to buy back the stocks, offering a higher price than Buffett had originally paid. Buffett accepted the offer, but in finalizing the transaction, Berkshire Hathaway slightly lowered the offer. In response, Buffett purchased enough shares to take control of the company and fired the managers who tried to lower the offer.

Buffett did not want to invest in the textile industry. However, he decided to make use of his new purchase. The investor used Berkshire Hathaway to acquire numerous profitable insurance businesses. To do this, Buffett used the profits from a transaction to make additional investments. Most of these investments were safe and long-term, such as well-performing stocks that were expected to grow over time.

Berkshire Hathaway continued to use its profits to grow, expanding into numerous other business sectors. Buffett maintained a tight grasp on the company, personally choosing many of the company’s acquisitions and investments. The company quickly developed a reputation for sound investments, and others began to watch where Berkshire Hathaway invested to imitate it. Over time, the stock price of Berkshire Hathaway quickly outperformed the S&P 500, a stock market index. Berkshire Hathaway stock price for class B shares rose from less than twelve dollars per share in 1996 to almost five hundred dollars per share in December 2025, while the traditional class A shares were at $755,400 per share during this period.

Impact

Berkshire Hathaway is a massive holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Although insurance subsidiaries are a significant part of Berkshire Hathaway, the company has amassed holdings in numerous other economic sectors across the world. Berkshire owns the McLane Company, a wholesale distributor serving major food service retailers and GEICO, one of the largest private auto insurance companies in the United States. The company has control of PacifiCorp, an electricity utility company that serves Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Oregon, and California. PacifiCorp serves more than 2.1 million customers with more than seventy power plants in the early 2020s. Also under Berkshire’s control are Lubrizol, a chemical manufacturer specializing in plastics, automotive additives, and pharmaceutical products, and Burlington Northern Santa Fe, which itself owns the BNSF Railway Company. Berkshire also owns Diary Queen, Pilot Travel Centers, See’s Candies, and, until 2018, Walmart. They also have a large equity stake in the Kraft Heinz Company.

Berkshire Hathaway also has a minority share in numerous other companies. Though owning a minority share does not allow Berkshire to have complete control of a company, it allows Berkshire to have a significant say in its decisions. Berkshire had a minority share in the massive soft drink company Coca-Cola and IBM, the technology giant that was primarily involved in producing specialized microchips for computers but in early 2020s started expanding into cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and enterprise services. Berkshire owned shares of Apple Inc., Delta Air Lines, and Goldman Sachs, another large investment firm. In 2018 Berkshire sold their IBM stake, while in 2020 they sold their stocks in Delta Air Lines.

In the early twenty-first century, industry experts speculated about how Berkshire Hathaway would perform after Buffett retired. Buffett served the company as both chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) since he acquired it and has played a major role in choosing the company’s investments. After Buffett retired on December 31, 2025, Greg Abel took on the role of CEO at Berkshire in January 2026. The company’s 2022 annual report, published in February 2023, was signed by Buffett, who remained Chairman of the Board and CEO. The company reported $22.8 billion in net losses in 2022 on $302 billion in operating income, and the company’s stock performance was reported to trail market averages for two decades, causing some to call for the ninety-two-year-old executive to step down.

In August 2024, Berkshire Hathaway’s market capitalization surpassed $1 trillion for the first time, making it the first US non-tech company to achieve that milestone.

Bibliography

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