In his first annual meeting as CEO, Berkshire Hathaway’s Greg Abel discussed a wide array of topics from artificial intelligence to his efforts to grow the conglomerate.
Abel said the Omaha-based firm was thinking criticially about how to use AI to add value, saying that Berkshire wasn’t “going to do AI for the sake of AI.” Abel also walked through efforts to improve its railway and insurance businesses at the event, which has long been called “Woodstock for Capitalists.”
Abel was joined on stage by members of his leadership team, but chairman Warren Buffett made remarks from the audience. Abel celebrated his predecessor by hanging a jersey from the rafters of the CHI Health Center, where the event is held each year. A deepfake version of Buffett also asked a question, prompting a discussion on the cybersecurity risks tied to AI.
In a special sideline interview, Buffett told CNBC’s Becky Quick that he did not see the ideal investing environment. Ahead of the meeting, Berkshire’s latest financial report showed a record cash pile nearing $400 billion.
Opening video pays tribute to Buffett
Berkshire’s annual meeting kicked off with an homage to Buffett.
A video montage highlighted pictures and videos of the Oracle of Omaha over the years. The video, which was set to the Huey Lewis & The News song “Back in Time,” also featured clips from past meetings.
Buffett’s message to shareholders and partners: Follow the ‘Golden Rule’
Buffett said that the top rule shareholders and partners should follow is treating others as they wish to be treated — otherwise known as the Golden Rule.
While the former CEO said he’s “not a religious guy,” he stressed that there has never been a better message spoken “in a couple thousand years than that.”
“If the whole world lived by the Golden Rule, it would be such a more wonderful society,” Buffett told CNBC’s Becky Quick. “That’s true for everything from parenthood to being a boss.”
“It doesn’t cost you anything. In fact, it’s reflected in better behavior toward you, so I mean it’s a very selfish sort of thing in one sense, but I’ve never seen anybody that’s unhappy that behaves that way,” he said.
Buffett: ‘We’ve never had people in a more gambling mood than now’
During the lunch break, Buffett compared “markets to a church with a casino attached,” making a distinction between traditional value investing and current enthusiasm for short-term options trading along with increasing interest in prediction markets.
“People can move between the church and the casino, and I would say there are more people in the church [than] people in the casino, but the casino has gotten very attractive,” he said. “If you’re buying one-day options or selling them, that’s not investing, it’s not speculating – it’s gambling.”
Buffett said the enthusiasm for “gambling” is at a peak.
“We’ve never had people in a more gambling mood than now,” he said.
Buffett commented on the recent case of a U.S. soldier who allegedly used classified information related to a military operation in Venezuela to make $400,000 on a prediction market. The Department of Justice is currently prosecuting the case.
“There’s nobody who can explain why they’re buying an option for one day unless they may have maybe [the chance to make] $400-and-some-thousand from knowing when we were going into Venezuela. … The quantity of those things is just incredible,” he said.
Buffett says Berkshire isn’t seeing ideal investing environment
Buffett acknowledged displeasure with the investing backdrop as Berkshire’s cash hoard swells to records.
“It isn’t our ideal surrounding area — or environment, I should say — in terms of deploying cash for Berkshire,” the former CEO told CNBC’s Becky Quick.
Buffett said the conglomerate has the “right management” and can “pick our spots.” While it appears like Berkshire can appear to be doing “nothing” at some points, it’s “quite active” at other times, he said.
Part of the hesitancy about investing capital was due to high prices in the market, he said.
When asked when it will be a good time to invest, Buffett said it will come when “nobody else will answer their phones,” a hint to a pullback in market prices.
Buffett’s comments came during a special sideline interview with CNBC. The Oracle of Omaha sat in the audience during the official meeting.
Ajit Jain on insuring ships through Hormuz: ‘Depends on the price’
Asked about how and when he could offer insurance to ships crossing the embattled Strait of Hormuz, Berkshire’s vice chairman of insurance operations Ajit Jain gave a pithy response.
“The short answer is – depends on the price,” he said, getting laughter and applause from the audience.
Berkshire is participating in a “program” to insure ships moving through Hormuz, which has been closed or severely restricted during much of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, but hasn’t written any deals for it yet, Jain said.
“We ourselves have taken a small participation in a program that’s [been] put in place so as to write insurance for the ships in the Strait of Hormuz. We haven’t written any deals as yet,” he said.
U.S. Navy escorts for transiting ships will be a condition of the underwriting process for the program, Jain said.
“It’s still being fine tuned,” he said. “But if we can get our terms – in terms of the underwriting decisions and the fact that the U.S. Navy will escort these ships – we have put a price on which we will be comfortable underwriting that risk. But nothing’s happened as yet.”
‘We’re not going to do AI for the sake of AI,’ Abel says
Abel said Berkshire has taken a reserved stance on using and managing artificial intelligence, a stark contrast from other chief executives racing to reorient or rebrand their businesses around the technology.
“It has to be additive to our businesses,” Abel said. “We’re not going to do AI for the sake of AI.”
Abel said Berkshire will deploy AI in a form that is narrow in scope and focused on creating value propositions. He said there’s risks for “humanity” tied to the technology that the conglomerate is keeping in mind.
Companies including Snap and Atlassian cited AI when announcing job cuts this year. Allbirds last month announced a pivot to the technology from sustainable shoe production last month, prompting a surge in its stock.
Berkshire’s operating earnings jump as cash hoard hits record near $400 billion
Berkshire Hathaway posted a solid jump in first-quarter operating earnings, driven largely by a rebound in its insurance business, while amassing a record amount of cash for new CEO Greg Abel’s coffers.
Operating profit from its wholly owned units — including insurance and railroads — rose 18% from a year earlier, according to the company’s first earnings report since Abel succeeded Warren Buffett as CEO at the start of 2026. Insurance underwriting led the gains, climbing 28.5% to about $1.7 billion.
Berkshire’s cash pile swelled to a record $397.4 billion, topping its prior high of $381.6 billion set in the third quarter of last year. That buildup came as the conglomerate was a seller of stocks, with roughly $24.1 billion in equity sales during the quarter. It purchased about $16 billion.
Shares of Berkshire have fallen about 6% year to date, lagging the S&P 500′s 5.6% gain. Berkshire has trailed the index by more than 30 percentage points since Buffett signaled plans to step down last May.
The underperformance came even after Berkshire resumed buybacks in March for the first time since 2024. Berkshire repurchased $235 million of stock in the first quarter, according to the earnings report. The company had already disclosed that it purchased $226 million in stock on March 4, so this means it only did a slight amount more of buying as the quarter came to a close.
Some of the stock-selling activity may reflect a broader reshuffling of the portfolio following the departure of longtime investment manager Todd Combs, who left for JPMorgan Chase at the end of 2025, though the company hasn’t disclosed exactly which positions were affected.
At the end of March, Berkshire’s top five holdings were American Express, Apple, Bank of America , The Coca-Cola Company and Chevron.
Abel revealed he used his entire after-tax salary of $15 million to personally buy Berkshire shares, and plans to keep doing so every year for as long as he’s CEO.
Comments