Berkshire Hathaway History: 60 Years in 22 Minutes

The ENTIRE History of Berkshire Hathaway in 22 Minutes — Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway history, and how a dying textile mill became a trillion-dollar empire. From a dying Massachusetts textile mill to a trillion-dollar empire — this is the complete story of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and the succession now testing whether sixty years of patience can outlive the man who built it. CHAPTERS: Cold Open — A record high in the first year without Buffett as chief executive Chapter 1 — The Boy From Omaha (1930–1956) Chapter 2 — The Twelve-Cent Insult (1962–1965) Chapter 3 — The Partner And The Float (1959–1972) Chapter 4 — The Gecko That Would Not Die (1951–1996) Chapter 5 — Trains, Candy And Ice Cream (1998–2010) Chapter 6 — The Portfolio And The Trillion (1988–2024) Chapter 7 — The Long Goodbye (2023–2026) Chapter 8 — Abel's First Year (2026) Outro — Can a trillion-dollar empire keep compounding under a new chief executive? THE NUMBERS: In 1965, Warren Buffett took control of Berkshire Hathaway after a dispute over an agreed $11.50 buyback price that arrived as $11.375, and the textile business closed in 1985. In 1967, Berkshire bought National Indemnity for $8.6 million; its insurance float grew from about $19 million to about $164 billion by end-2022, as reported. Berkshire bought See's Candies for $25 million in 1972, completed its GEICO buyout for $2.3 billion in 1996, bought Dairy Queen for about $590 million in 1998, and bought Burlington Northern Santa Fe for about $26.5 billion in 2010. Charlie Munger, Berkshire's vice chairman from 1978, died on 28 November 2023 at age 99. Berkshire's market value passed $1 trillion on 28 August 2024, the first non-technology American company to do so, as reported. Warren Buffett retired as chief executive on 31 December 2025; Greg Abel became president and chief executive on 1 January 2026; on 18 September 2026 Buffett stepped down as chairman, becoming chairman emeritus and remaining a board member, with Howard Buffett becoming chairman. In his first shareholder letter in February 2026, Abel named Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola and Moody's as core long-term holdings, plus Japan's five trading houses; in the first half of 2026 Berkshire exited 16 stock positions in the first quarter and became a net buyer of about $20 billion of stocks in the second quarter, including a roughly $17 billion addition to Alphabet, as reported in second-quarter filings. On 21 October 2026, Berkshire's B shares hit a new high of $543.06, as reported. In the second quarter of 2026, Berkshire spent about $4.5 billion buying back its own shares, as reported, and its cash pile fell from a record of nearly $400 billion at end-March 2026 to roughly $360 billion by end-June 2026, as reported in second-quarter filings. (All market figures are as reported before third-quarter earnings, expected 7 November 2026.) SOURCES: Reuters-derived company histories and factbox reporting Britannica: Buffett and Abel biographies Nasdaq: succession and acquisition reporting Motley Fool: portfolio, float, buyback and cash-pile reporting TradingView and Seeking Alpha news: October 2026 record high and Q3 earnings timing Des Moines Register and Fast Company: September 2026 chairman change AP and NPR obituaries: Charlie Munger brk-b.com: GEICO company history Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letters, as reported #BerkshireHathaway #BerkshireHathawayHistory #WarrenBuffett #CharlieMunger #GregAbel #ValueInvesting #CompanyHistory #BusinessDocumentary #HowCompaniesStarted #EntrepreneurStories #InvestingHistory #StockMarketHistory #GEICO #BNSF #SeesCandies Berkshire Hathaway was built by buying good businesses, never selling them, and letting patience compound for sixty years. Now the question is whether that patience can outlive the man who built it — or whether Berkshire Hathaway was, all along, really just Warren Buffett?