Buffett gives “huge support” to new CEO Abel in CNBC interview

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Warren Buffett told CNBC’s Becky Quick that he’d rather have something new. Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel manages his own money “more than any other top investment advisor or top CEO in the United States.”

Mr. Buffett’s stake in the company is currently valued at $147.5 billion, and by running Berkshire, Mr. Abel will effectively control nearly all of Mr. Buffett’s vast net worth.

Quick interviewed Buffett in May, just days after he announced plans to step down as CEO at the end of the year. Although Wednesday was his last day on the job, he remains chairman of the board and will continue to report to work every day.

CNBC aired short excerpts of the conversation on Friday to help promote a special later this month that will feature the interview in its entirety.

In the video, Buffett promised that Abel would be a “decision maker” and that he could accomplish more in a week than he could in a month.

He praised Abel for not being a “crooked person” despite the fact that he plans to run a company with 400,000 employees, saying it is “more likely than any other company I can think of to be here 100 years from now.”

Buffett won’t be speaking at the annual meeting in May, but he suggested to Becky that she might be interviewed during CNBC’s coverage of the event.

Here is a video of Becky’s report on Friday’s “Squawk Box” interview and text of an excerpt of Buffett’s interview.

Warren Buffett: Everything will be the same. Okay, I’ll come in.

I don’t — I’m not going to speak at the annual meeting, but I’m in the officers’ section.

You’ll probably end up interviewing me — (laughter) — at halftime or something, who knows.

But the decider will be Greg. I can’t imagine how much more he can accomplish in a week than I can accomplish in a month. I mean, he just—

At the same time, he is not a twisted person. He likes playing ice hockey with children.

And…he lives a seemingly normal life. And my guess is that if the neighbors didn’t know who he was, they wouldn’t know about 50 or 100 years from now that on January 1st he’s going to be in charge of a company that employs nearly 400,000 people and has plans.

And who knows what will happen. But I think it has a better chance of still being around 100 years from now than any other company I can think of.

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Warren Buffett: And Greg has essentially done more than I have.

So he went to England to do something. He went to us, you know. He came to Omaha once to run a business for several years.

And he knows there’s no such thing as a secret formula that only CEOs have.

Therefore, I would rather have Greg handle my money than a top investment advisor or a top CEO in the United States.

Becky Quick: I totally agree with that.

Warren Buffett: That’s a huge endorsement, but it’s an endorsement that we made. (lol)

And — and I’m going to let him, in effect, manage my money —

he knows business.

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Later in the day, “Money Matters” rebroadcast portions of the interview, followed by CNBC senior market commentator Michael Santoli’s thoughts on Berkshire’s detailed transition to a new CEO.

The entire interview will be featured in the special “Warren Buffett: Life and Legacy,” scheduled to air on CNBC on Tuesday, January 13th at 7pm ET.

This has given S&P a very early lead of 1.60 percentage points over BRKA since the beginning of the year.

If Berkshire includes S&P dividends in the metrics it uses for comparison in its annual report, the lead is 1.62 percentage points.

In 2025, the S&P with dividends outperformed Berkshire’s A-shares by 7.0 percentage points.

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BRK.A Stock price: $744,120.00

BRK.B Stock price: $496.85

BRK.BP/E (TTM): 15.89

Berkshire Market Capitalization: $1,071,267,887,262

Berkshire Cash as of September 30: $381.7 billion (up 10.9% from June 30)

Excluding railroad cash and outstanding Treasury bills: $354.3 billion (4.3% increase from June 30)

There have been no repurchases of Berkshire stock since May 2024.

(All figures are as of the date of publication, unless otherwise noted)

Berkshire’s top U.S. and Japanese listed stocks by market capitalization, based on the latest closing prices.

Holdings are as of September 30, 2025, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s November 14, 2025 13F filing. However, the following cases are excluded.

A complete list of holdings and current market value is available on CNBC.com’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

If you have any questions or comments about the newsletter, please send them to alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, we do not forward questions or comments to Mr. Buffett himself.)

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I also highly recommend Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders. It’s collected here on Berkshire’s website.

— Alex Crippen, Warren Buffett Watch Editor