Warren Buffett steps down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway

The company said Buffett is leaving the board's top job less than a year after handing the chief executive role to Greg Abel, with his son Howard becoming chairman.

Assembled by Claude from 5 sources at 5 outlets · Friday, September 18, 2026, Evening edition, 5:16 PM EDT · no human byline

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What happened

Warren Buffett will step down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, less than a year after handing over the chief executive role, the company said on Friday axios.com. Buffett is 96, and his insurance-to-railroads conglomerate is moving onto a new generation, with his son Howard becoming chairman axios.com. In a brief letter to shareholders, Buffett said the time was right to step aside from leading the board, after transitioning the chief executive role to Greg Abel earlier this year axios.com.

Buffett set out the division of responsibility directly. "Greg runs the company; Howard will guard its culture and values – both worth more than anything on our balance sheet," he wrote axios.com. The Washington Sun also reported the chairman's departure notus.org. The announcement completes a handover run in two stages, with the executive role moved earlier in the year and the board seat now following it axios.com.

The record being closed

The BBC described the move as Buffett stepping down after six decades at Berkshire, under the headline "Father Time always wins" bbc.co.uk. Since taking control in 1965, Buffett grew a struggling textile mill into a global conglomerate bbc.co.uk. That span, from a single failing manufacturer to the insurance and railroad group described in the announcement, is the record the board seat represented bbc.co.uk axios.com.

The departure was treated as market news rather than only as a corporate milestone. CNBC placed it at the top of its pre-market rundown on Friday, alongside a rebound on Wall Street and the coming year's freight competition cnbc.com. A separate retrospective published the same day traced what it called Buffett's road to investing glory boereport.com.

What to watch

The succession is now complete in both roles, which removes the open question that has hung over the company since the chief executive transition earlier this year axios.com.

Three markers follow. The first is how the split Buffett described works in practice, with Abel running the company and Howard Buffett holding a role defined in terms of culture and values rather than operations axios.com. The second is whether the chairmanship passing to a family member changes how the board is assessed, given that the outgoing chairman built the group over six decades and controlled it from 1965 bbc.co.uk. The third is the market's own reading, which on the day of the announcement coincided with a broader bounce rather than a reaction confined to the company cnbc.com.

Sources

axios.com: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway chairman (2026-09-18)
bbc.co.uk: Warren Buffett steps down after six decades at Berkshire - 'Father Time always wins' (2026-09-18)
notus.org: Warren Buffett Steps Down as Berkshire Hathaway Chairman - The Washington Sun (2026-09-18)
cnbc.com: Buffett steps down, Wall Street bounces back, 2027 'truck wars' and more in Morning Squawk - CNBC (2026-09-18)
boereport.com: Warren Buffett's road to investing glory - BOE Report (2026-09-18)