Berkshire Hathaway Meeting 2025: Don't get discouraged about the US, says Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett: It's very important that the United States in the next 100 years make sure that the Cathedral is not overtaken by the casino. Because people really like to go to casinos.

Warren Buffet said, "I think that bureaucracy is dangerously contagious and it really doesnt have any checks on it and that is why it scares you on what the future of the currency will be. I think the problem of how you control revenue and expenses in the government is never solved."

Warren Buffett: Investment management is a very good game, because other people put up the capital and you charge them for the capital whether they do well or not, and then charge them a lot more if they do well. It's a well designed business for the people who practice it, and who can blame them. I mean, that is capitalism.

Warren Buffett: I don't have emotions about the prices of stocks. I mean, I actually those decisions get a whole way to my brain, whereas emotions get bogged down in some other places.

If Berkshire stock went down 50% tomorrow it wouldn't me at all.

Warren Bufett: Berkshire will increase its earning power over time as we retain money. We we are doing things, making decisions every day, people are working on retaining earnings, we will build the earning power

Greg Abel: The capital to meet the long-term needs of what is projected as demand will be enormous, and we at Berkshire will be there for those needs. - On energy

Greg Abel: There will be major investment opportunities ahead, and a substantial amount of capital will be needed to meet long-term demand, which is projected to be enormous. At Berkshire, we’ll be well-positioned to help meet that need, and we’ll likely have more opportunities to deploy capital than we do today.

Warren Buffett: We do have the capital, and that’s a key part of the game, but combining that capital with knowledge and action isn’t easy. The country wasn’t designed to operate with 48 different jurisdictions. Things work differently in wartime, and differently in peacetime.

Greg Abel: We’ve built up a significant amount of cash, and that’s a real asset. We intend to deploy it wisely. We also view it as a strategic resource, especially in difficult times, so we don’t have to rely on anyone else, whether it’s a bank or another party.

Greg Abel: With strong cash flows, we already have significant resources on our balance sheet. We continue to follow the same philosophy we’ve had for 60 years, looking for opportunities in both insurance and non-insurance businesses, focusing on whether they are well-capitalised.

Greg Abel: The next opportunity is to acquire businesses in their totality. The value relative to the risk has to be right.

Warren Buffett: I spend more time looking at balanced sheet than income statements. Wall Street don't pay that much attention to balance sheets. You learn more from balance sheets than most people give credit for.

At the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, shareholder Sean Siegel from Chicago put Warren Buffett on the spot with a question about a hometown favorite. (Read More)

There are times when one has to act fast to make money but one needs to be patient at times when looking for the right opportunities, said Warren Buffett while speaking at the annual shareholders meet of Berkshire Hathaway at Omaha. (Read More) 

Warren Buffett: Insurance prices in Nebraska have doubled over the past 10 years, even after adjusting for general inflation and storm-related losses, yet the business has still been unprofitable, making the future hard to predict.

Warren Buffett: Our insurance underwriting results were down significantly in the first quarter, and as always, the insurance business is unpredictable. Prices have come down while risks have increased this year. Still, we have a unique advantage in the insurance industry, one that others can’t easily replicate.

Ajit Jain: Self-driving cars are generally safer and involved in fewer accidents. They bring increased product liability and a greater focus on handling claims related to product or operational failures.

Ajit Jain: We’re likely to see a major shift, while the number of accidents will drop significantly due to automated cars, the cost of repairs will rise sharply because of all the technology involved. How these two factors balance out is still an open question.

Ajit Jain: There's no question private equity firms have entered this space, and we are no longer competitive. We used to do a fair amount, but in the last three or four years, I don't think we've done a single deal.

You should separate the segment into two parts: property casualty and life. The private equity firms are very active in the life side, not in property.

Ajit Jain: PE firms are taking risks both in leverage and credit exposure. While the economy is strong and credit spreads are low, they've moved assets from conservative to higher-return investments. That works for now, and they'll make money, especially with leverage.

But there's a risk that regulators step in and say, 'You're taking too much risk for policyholders,' and that could end in tears. We don’t like the risk-reward and have put up the white flag. We can’t compete in that segment right now.

Greg Abel, Buffett’s top deputy who is gradually taking over the company’s daily operations, echoed the same sentiment. (Read More)

Warren Buffett: If you look at the career span of professional athletes, you might decide it’s better not to be on a baseball or basketball team. Charlie and I never exercised all that much—we focused on preserving ourselves carefully. If you stay healthy and take the long view, you’ll find you’re in a much better position compared to what was possible just a few years ago

Warren Buffett pushed back against growing pessimism over the U.S. economy, reaffirming his long-standing belief in what he famously calls the “American tailwind.” (Read More) 

Warren Buffett:  The world isn’t going to adapt to you—you have to adapt to it. The world makes big mistakes, and the more complex the system becomes, the more surprises there are. That’s what creates stock markets. If you’re scared by declines and thrilled by upswings, that’s just human emotion—but when you invest, you need to leave those emotions at the door.

Who you associate with is very important. Your life is going to move in the general direction based on the people you associate with, work with.

Buffett: Don't give up on looking around and you will find people who will do wonderful things for you

Charlie always said that if it was about picking an area outside stocks he said it could be done in foreign currency, says Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett: If you have the people who can control the money. There will always be people. The natural course of the government is to make the value of currency be less.

Warren Buffett: We have had a lot of "Fun" in seeing what happens when people are trying to run fiscal risk. That game isnt over and will never be over

Warren Buffett defended Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s historically high cash pile, saying the firm is staying “very, very, very opportunistic” and won’t force capital deployment just to appear fully invested. (Read More)

Warren Buffett cautioned against the use of tariffs, calling them “a big mistake” and warning that trade should not become a weapon. Speaking at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting in response to a widely submitted question, Buffett drew a clear distinction between tariffs and a little-known idea he floated in 2003: import certificates. (Read More)

I have always told my kids that there sound is my sound. You dont always find your sound in the first job you do as you have to eat, says Warren Buffett.

Are investors being overly pessimistic on the US economy, a shareholder, asks, or is the country entering a period of fundamental change that requires a new perspective?

"America's been in significant revolutionary change, really, ever since it was developed," says Buffett. "We're always in the process of change, we'll always find all kinds of things to criticize in the country."

But Buffett maintains that the United States is a great place to live.

"The luckiest day of my life is the day I was born," says Buffett. "We've gone through all kinds of things, and gone through great recessions, we've gone through World Wars, we've gone through the development of an atomic bomb that we never dreamt of at the time I was born.

"I would not get discouraged about the fact that it doesn't look like we've solved [every] problem that's come along, and if I were being born today, I would just keep negotiating in the womb until they say you could be in the United States. We're all pretty lucky."

When it comes to choosing between AI and Berkshire Hathaway veteran Ajit Jain, CEO Warren Buffett is clear where he stands- Ajit Jain. (Read More) 

Never sought out professional investors to join our partnerships. Among all my partners, I never had a single institution. I never wanted an institution. I wanted people, and I didn't want people that were sitting around

Warren Buffett speaks about the probability of investing in a good business increasing as time goes on, like the likelihood of death.

"I mean, if you're 10 years old, the chances you're going to die the next day are low. You get to be 115 or something, it's almost a cinch, particularly if you're a male," says Buffett.

"I mean, all the records are held by females in terms of age. And I tried to get Charlie to have a sex change so he could test it out," he says to laughs. He was referring to his old friend and late Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, who died at age 99 in 2023.

"He did pretty well for being a male, I'll put it that way."

If you gave me a choice between everything that will be developed in AI over the next 10 years for Ajit, or $200 billion to deploy in the property and casualty insurance business over that same period and the best AI product developed by whoever leads in the field, whether it's OpenAI, Google, or another I wouldn’t choose the AI. I’d still go with Ajit. Warren Buffett

There is no question in my mind that AI is going to be a game changer in the way we assess risks. But at the same time , people are spending a large amount of money chasing the nest best thing. We have not made a conscious big time investment yet.

Warren Buffett: In a real estate deal, every sentence matters as much as a person. But in the stock market, if someone needs to sell 20,000 shares of Berkshire at the right price, the transaction is completed in five seconds.

Warren Buffett: There’s much more opportunity in the US securities market than in real estate. In securities, you’re usually dealing with a single owner and handling billions of dollars in transactions. In real estate, even after signing a deal, there’s often a lot of back-and-forth on the remaining terms.

Warren Buffett: Charlie always thought I did too many things. We have made a lot of money by not being fully invested at all times.

Warren Buffett: Nobody knows what business is going to do tomorrow, next week or next month. But they spend all their time talking about it.

Warren Buffett: Every now and then, you come across something special. It doesn't happen often. Maybe occasionally, very occasionally but it does happen. I don't know exactly when it will happen again. It could be next week, or it might be five years from now, but it won’t be 50 years away. When it does, we’ll be presented with opportunities to invest with the cash we have. It would be exciting if it happened tomorrow, but that’s very unlikely.

"The United States, we’ve won. We’ve become an incredibly important country, starting from nothing 250 years ago.

It’s a big mistake in my view, when you have seven and a half billion people that don’t like you very well, and you got 300 million that are crowing in some way about how well they’ve done. And I don’t think its right, and I don’t think it’s wise, I do think that the more support and the more prosperous the rest of the world becomes, it won’t be in our expense."

The crowd applauded this part of his remarks.

Warren Buffett: Of cash we have we would spend. We came pretty close to spending 10 billion, not that long ago, for example, spend 100 billion. Those decisions are not tough to make.

When something is offered that it makes sense to assume that we understand and offers good value and where we don't worry about losing. And the one problem with the investment business is that things don't come along in an orderly fashion and they never will.

Warren Buffett: There is no question that trade can be an act of war. We can see the attitutdes it has brought out in the US.

Warren Buffett: In the US, we should do trade with the world, they can do best and we can do best

Warren Buffett: The more prosperous the world becomes, it will not be at our expense

Trade should not be a weapon. US has become a very important country. It is a big mistake in my view if such a large population does not like you. It is not wise, says Warren Buffett

"I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that Tim Cook has made Berkshire a lot more money than I've ever made Berkshire Hathaway," said Buffet. Cook stood up to applause. "Credit should be given to him."

He said while late CEO Steve Jobs "did things that nobody else could have done in developing Apple," Steve picked Cook to succeed him.

"And he really made the right decision," Buffett said.

Nobody could have built Apple like Steve Jobs but nobody could have developed it like Tim Cook.

“On behalf of all Berkshire, thank you Tim,” Warren Buffett said.

"This is my 60th annual meeting," said Warren Buffett to cheers. "It's the biggest and I think it'll be the best yet."

n its guide to shareholders who are attending, Berkshire Hathaway issued explicit instruction to people in the room who hope to ask questions:

"When asking a question from a microphone zone, please:

• State your name and hometown.

• Ask your question promptly — speak loud & clear.

• Do not ask more than one question or attempt to “bundle” several questions together.

• Do not ask what we are buying or selling. Even if the information is public, we do not discuss how we arrive at our decisions. We also will not discuss politics. Any other subjects are fair game."

Berkshire Hathaway’s 94-year-old CEO Warren Buffett is set to speak to investors at the company’s annual meeting in Omaha on May 3. Many are wondering if the “Oracle of Omaha” will finally comment on US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies and the market swings that followed. Read More

Berkshire Hathaway investors are looking forward to this weekend’s annual meeting in Omaha — it’s the one time each year when they get to hear Warren Buffett speak in detail about the company. Read More

Warren Buffett-led Berkshire Hathaway reported a decline in first-quarter operating profit. According to an SEC filing on May 3, the operating profit for the quarter was $9.64 billion, a 14.1 percent decrease from $11.22 billion in the same quarter last year. (Read More)

Investors and market observers will be closely monitoring today’s Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting where CEO and market veteran Warren Buffett will be addressing investors. Read More

Berkshire Hathaway reported $1.1 billion in Q1 losses from southern California wildfires.

Their impact is being felt across the insurance industry and other areas, with initial estimates from AccuWeather suggesting that total economic losses could reach as high as $150 billion.

69% of the aggregate fair value of its equity investments was concentrated in American Express, Apple, Bank of America, Chevron and Coca-Cola as of March 31

As of the end of March, Berkshire owned 151.6 million shares of American Express company common stock, representing 21.6% of that company's shares.

Net loss from investments $5,038 million vs year-earlier $1,480 million gain

At March 31, insurance flow was approximately $173 billion, an increase of $2 billion since year-end 2024

On March 31, there were 1,438,223 Class A equivalent shares outstanding

Net earnings dropped to $4.6 billion

Class A share earnings fall to $3,200

Operating income came in at $9, 641 millio

Berkshire's Q1 earnings release contains a warning on tariffs and their unpredictability.

"Changes in macroeconomic conditions and geopolitical events, including changes in international trade policies and tariffs, may negatively affect our operating results and the values of our investments in equity securities and of our operating businesses. We are currently unable to reliably predict the nature, timing or magnitude of the potential economic consequences of any such changes or the impacts on our Consolidated Financial Statements."

Throughout the first three months of 2025, tariffs were mentioned more than 800 times on investor events or conference calls by non-financial companies globally, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, the highest in at least 15 years and nearly double the level seen during Trump's first trade war in 2018-2019.