Berkshire Hathaway Inc

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is a renowned American multinational conglomerate holding firm with its headquarters situated in Omaha, Nebraska. Initially a textile manufacturer, the company began its transformation into a conglomerate in 1965, under the leadership of chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, along with vice chairman Charlie Munger. Greg Abel currently oversees the majority of the firm's investments and has been designated as Buffett's successor. Buffett personally holds 38.4% of Berkshire Hathaway's Class A voting shares, equating to a 15.1% overall economic stake in the organization.

Often likened to an investment fund, Berkshire Hathaway has delivered a remarkable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.8% in shareholder returns from 1965, the year Buffett took control, through to 2023, outperforming the S&P 500's 10.2% CAGR in the same period. Nevertheless, for the decade ending in 2023, Berkshire Hathaway's CAGR for shareholders was 11.8%, slightly trailing the S&P 500's 12.0% CAGR. Notably, from 1965 to 2023, the company's stock price exhibited negative performance in merely eleven years. In August 2024, Berkshire Hathaway achieved the distinction of becoming the eighth publicly traded company in the U.S. and the first non-technology firm valued at over $1 trillion based on market capitalization.

Berkshire Hathaway holds the 5th position in the Fortune 500 list of the largest corporations in the United States by total revenue and ranks 9th on the Fortune Global 500. It is one of the ten largest constituents of the S&P 500 and ranks among the largest employers across the nation. The Class A shares of Berkshire Hathaway command the highest per-share price of any public company globally, reaching $700,000 in August 2024, attributable to the board of directors' historical opposition to stock splits.