Warren Buffett looked in good health. He entered the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders’ meeting with a cane and a red tie, and two cans of Coca-Cola were on the table, just as they have been for years.
Every year, investors rush to Omaha to listen to the words of the legendary man. This marked his 60th meeting, and possibly his last as CEO.
Buffett has been one of the most successful investors of all time, famed for evaluating prospects from a value point of view instead of chasing hot stocks.
The day before this shareholders’ meeting, Berkshire’s market value hit a new high of $1.16 trillion despite a sell-off across the U.S. stock market this year.
Berkshire’s Class A (BRK.A) and (BRK.B) shares rose about 1.8% on May 2 and are up about 19% this year. The S&P 500 index is down 3.3% over the period.
Even with Berkshire reaching new records, Buffett isn’t rushing to take advantage of the recent downturn.
Buffett doesn’t see big opportunities amid recent market sell-off
When asked about whether the recent market volatility has offered opportunities for big investments, Buffett said, “It’s really nothing.”
“What has happened in the last 30, 45, 100 days,” Buffett says, “is really nothing.”
“This is not a huge move,” Buffett says about the moves in the stock market in comparison to historical downturns like the 1929 crash. “This has not been a dramatic bear market or anything of the sort,” he says.
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Over the past 60 years, Buffett has seen three periods when Berkshire’s stock was halved. He pointed to the Great Depression as a much more serious drop, when the Dow fell from 240 at his birth in 1930 to just 41.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 41,317.43 on May 2, 2025.
Berkshire Hathaway holds a huge amount of cash
Berkshire is now one of the largest conglomerates in the country. Its investment portfolio’s biggest holdings include Apple AAPL, American Express AXP, Bank of America BAC, and Coca-Cola KO.
Over the past few quarters, Berkshire has gradually trimmed its holdings in Apple and Bank of America.
Apple holdings dropped from 915 million shares in the third quarter of 2023 to 300 million by the end of 2024. Bank of America was trimmed from 1 billion to 680 million shares over the same period.
The conglomerate is now sitting on some $347 billion in cash, which is greater than the combined cash holdings of Apple, Microsoft (MSFT) , Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) , and Amazon.com (AMZN) .
Buffett said he doesn’t see many attractive investments that he understands these days, but he believes that one day Berkshire will be “bombarded with opportunities that we will be glad we have the cash for.”
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Investors naturally seek opportunities amid market ups and downs, and Buffett reminds them to stay rational: “If you get frightened by markets that decline and get excited when stock markets go up… People have emotions, but you’ve got to check them at the door when you invest.”
Buffett plans to step down
Buffett studied under Benjamin Graham at Columbia University in the early 1950s. He took control of Berkshire Hathaway in 1965 and shifted it from a textile maker into a powerhouse spanning insurance, utilities, and retail.
Now 94, Buffett has long been a living symbol of patience, discipline, and long-term thinking.
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But at this year’s shareholder meeting, Buffett shared a message that could signal the end of an era: He plans to step down.
“I think the time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end,” Buffett said.
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“I would still hang around and conceivably be useful in a few cases but the final word would be what Greg said, in operations, in capital deployment, whatever it might be.”
Buffett then added he would not sell any Berkshire shares.
“The decision to keep every share is an economic decision because I think the prospects of Berkshire will be better under Greg’s management than mine,” he said.
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