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InvestmentShareholder letter· SEC ARS

Berkshire Hathaway's 2025 letter to shareholders, Greg Abel's first as CEO

Written by
Greg Abel
Organisation
Berkshire Hathaway
Filed
28 Feb 2026
Sector
Conglomerate and insurance

Read the original at sec.gov (opens in a new tab)

This is the view as filed on 28 Feb 2026, not a statement of what the author thinks today.

About this letter

Greg Abel wrote this letter to Berkshire Hathaway's shareholders in February 2026, his first annual letter after the board appointed him to succeed Warren Buffett as chief executive. Buffett remains chairman and in the office five days a week, and Abel opens by paying tribute to him and to Charlie Munger before explaining his own route into Berkshire: he moved to Omaha in 1992 to join CalEnergy, which later became MidAmerican Energy Holdings and was acquired by Berkshire, and he went on to lead Berkshire Hathaway Energy.

The letter sets out the culture and founding values Abel intends to keep, under headings such as integrity, financial strength, capital discipline and risk management. It then reports on 2025, a year of $44.5 billion in operating earnings, slightly below 2024, and reviews the insurance operations, the 51 non-insurance businesses and the main equity holdings, including stakes in five Japanese companies, before inviting owners to the May 2026 annual meeting.

Why read it

The first letter from Buffett's successor shows how a founder-built culture is restated for a new CEO: decentralisation, capital discipline and patient use of cash.

What to notice

  1. 1

    Abel describes the job as stewardship of shareholders' capital and says Berkshire's values are the reason for its success, not a product of it.

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Companies discussed

  • Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)

Topics

  • leadership
  • culture
  • capital allocation
  • long term thinking
Read the original at sec.gov (opens in a new tab)What Berkshire Hathaway owns (13F)

L3VLUP does not host this document. It belongs to Berkshire Hathaway and is a public SEC filing; the notes above are L3VLUP’s reading of it.

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