Berkshire joined six other companies, mostly in the technology sector, that surpassed $1 trillion: Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon.com and Meta Platforms (Facebook’s parent company).
The valuation is based on Berkshire’s 553,234 Class A shares and 1,325,192,508 Class B shares outstanding as of July 23. Berkshire has slowed its share repurchases this year.
In morning trading, Class A shares rose 0.7% to $696,005.94.
Berkshire’s dozens of insurance, energy, manufacturing, retail and services businesses generated $22.8 billion in profit in the first half of the year, up 26% from a year earlier. The businesses include Geico auto insurance, BNSF railroad, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Brooks running shoes, Dairy Queen ice cream, Ginsu knives and the World Book encyclopedia, among others. Berkshire also has a huge stock portfolio led by Apple, though it has sold more than half of its Apple shares this year. The stock sales are a major reason Berkshire’s cash and equivalents holdings soared to $276.9 billion as of June 30, mostly in U.S. Treasury bills.
Buffett, who turns 94 on Aug. 30, has led Berkshire since 1965.
By the time Berkshire’s value hit $1 trillion, its shares had gained more than 5.6 million percent since the year Buffett took over.
That’s about 20% a year, almost double the annualized gain of the Standard & Poor’s 500, including dividends.
Buffett still owns more than 14 percent of the Omaha, Nebraska-based company despite having donated more than half of his shares to charity since 2006.
As of Tuesday, Buffett’s fortune was worth about $144.9 billion, making him the sixth-richest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine.
As of Tuesday, Berkshire shares were up 27% this year, compared with an 18% gain for the S&P 500.
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