Berkshire Hathaway CEO and longtime Apple backer Warren Buffett announced today that he will retire at the end of 2025. Buffett, 94, spent more than six decades at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway, which was Apple’s largest institutional shareholder until last year.
Apple CEO Tim Cook shared a photo of himself and Buffett smiling together at Apple Park, along with a personal tribute to the legendary investor.
“There’s never been someone like Warren, and countless people, myself included, have been inspired by his wisdom,” Cook wrote. “It’s been one of the great privileges of my life to know him. And there’s no question that Warren is leaving Berkshire in great hands with Greg.”
Buffett’s backing of Apple has been one of the most influential investments of his career—but it didn’t start that way. For years, he avoided Apple and other tech stocks, citing their unpredictability and his rule to “never invest in a business you cannot understand.”
“We held very few in the past and we’re likely to hold very few in the future,” he said in 2012. “Coca-Cola is very easy for me to come to a conclusion as to what it will look like economically in five or 10 years, and it’s not easy for me to come to a conclusion about Apple.”
That changed in 2016, when Berkshire Hathaway began buying Apple stock, eventually becoming its largest institutional shareholder. Buffett came to see Apple not as a traditional tech company, but as a consumer business with unmatched brand loyalty and recurring revenue. His long-term commitment helped legitimize Apple among value investors and reinforced its status as a cornerstone of the global economy.
Although Berkshire has reduced its Apple stake, the firm still holds roughly $75 billion in AAPL shares. The Vanguard Group overtook Berkshire in 2024 to become Apple’s largest institutional shareholder, with a reported 9% stake. Berkshire trimmed nearly two-thirds of its Apple holdings last year, helping drive its record cash reserves past $300 billion.
Buffett’s successor, 62-year-old Greg Abel, will assume the CEO role at the end of the year. The announcement came during Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting—an event that, six years ago, gave rise to Warren Buffett’s Paper Wizard, a whimsical iOS game released in partnership with Apple.
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