The Berkshire Beat: January 9, 2026
All of the latest Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway news!
In the days following Warren Buffett’s retirement announcement, Becky Quick sat down with the man himself to discuss his surprising decision and the business empire that he will leave behind. CNBC will air this never-before-seen interview as part of a two-hour special — “Warren Buffett: A Life and Legacy” — on Tuesday, January 13.
Happily, CNBC released a few short clips to whet our appetites for the main event.
“Everything will be the same,” Buffett told Quick. “I will come in [to the office every day]. I won’t be up there speaking at the annual meeting, but I’ll be in the directors section. Maybe you’ll interview me at halftime or something of the sort. Who knows?”
He also heaped plenty of praise on new CEO Greg Abel. “You can’t imagine how much more he can get accomplished in a week than I can,” said Buffett. “And at the same time, he’s not a distorted individual. He likes to play ice hockey with his kids and he lives what would look like a normal life.”
“My guess is that if [his] neighbors didn’t know who he was, they wouldn’t have any idea that on January 1 he is going to be the decider on a company that employs close to 400,000 people and has got plans to be around 50 or 100 years from now.”
“Who knows what will happen, but [Berkshire Hathaway] has a better chance of being here 100 years from now than any company I can think of.”
Buffett then paid his successor the ultimate compliment: “I would rather have Greg handling my money than any of the top investment advisors or any of the top CEOs in the United States.”
Other news and notes from the Berkshire Hathaway orbit…
Greg Abel’s annual cash salary will increase to $25 million effective immediately. That represents a 19% raise for the new CEO over last year’s $21 million paycheck. Warren Buffett, of course, kept his salary at a modest $100,000 for decades — though he already owned a massive amount of low-cost Berkshire Hathaway stock from his partnership days. Hopefully, at the appropriate time, Abel will redirect some of this compensation towards the purchase of more Class A shares.
Itochu CFO Tsuyoshi Hachimura shared a surprise sneak peek at Abel’s first annual letter to Berkshire shareholders, which is expected to be released in late February. Hachimura told Nikkei Asia about a conversation he had with Abel back in November — and how the new Berkshire CEO intends to write about the time he relocated to Omaha for work in the 1990s. Abel, like most business leaders, had a healthy respect for the Oracle and wanted to find a house in sight of the Buffett residence. 🤣
According to Hachimura, the letter will also reaffirm Abel’s intent to “continue with Buffett’s way of thinking” as Berkshire CEO.
Adam Mead, author of The Complete Financial History of Berkshire Hathaway, offered an interesting perspective on Buffett’s retirement. “[It] is like the business equivalent of the Ship of Theseus,” he wrote on X. “Did he retire in 2018 when he turned over direct management to Greg and Ajit? Did it happen on December 31, 2025? Or will it happen when he steps down from the Chairman’s spot? The reality is that Berkshire engineered a brilliant transition that has been happening for years. Buffett would probably consider his official retirement date to be the day he dies.”
Berkshire officially completed its $9.7 billion acquisition of OxyChem on January 2. CEO Wade Alleman will stay on to run OxyChem from its Dallas headquarters. Occidental Petroleum hailed the sale as a true win-win. “This transaction accelerates our strategy to strengthen Occidental’s balance sheet and focus on our deep and diverse oil and gas portfolio which we have transformed over the last decade,” said Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub. “We expect to operate our high-return oil and gas assets to deliver long-term value while driving innovation across our businesses.”
In a new video, Quinn Nelson of Snazzy Labs makes the case that Apple’s recent executive exodus is not a sign of dysfunction, but succession. He framed these moves as CEO Tim Cook acting as a “hatchet man” by proactively clearing out retirees, under-performers, and other potential friction points — thus setting the stage for his successor to eventually hit the ground running with everyone on the same page.
The Financial Times reports that Chevron has teamed up with private equity firm Quantum Capital Group to bid on Lukoil’s international assets. This massive portfolio — including oil and gas production, refining facilities, and filling stations across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East — is valued around $22 billion. And, perhaps mostly importantly, the Chevron/Quantum team has Washington’s backing.
“We are looking for a divestment that places ownership of these assets into the hands of an American owner and operator ad infinitum,” a senior U.S. official told FT. “We do not want a buy-and-flip situation, so this is a compelling option.”
Meanwhile, Chevron also stands to benefit from the evolving situation in Venezuela. The New York Times notes that as the only U.S. oil company already operating there and authorized to export crude from the country, it should be able to increase production much faster than any rivals who must re-enter the market from scratch.
In sad news, Jazwares CEO Judd Zebersky and president Laura Zebersky will leave the company on March 20. As part of their planned exit, after nearly three decades building Jazwares into a toy powerhouse, the husband-and-wife team will pass the baton to COO David Neustein. “We are incredibly proud of what the team has built,” Judd wrote in an email to employees, “including turning Jazwares into a global leader in the toy industry and building Squishmallows into a cultural phenomenon.”
The Zeberskys also paid homage to parent company Berkshire in their farewell statement: “We thank Berkshire Hathaway, whose stewardship, trust, and shared principles have strengthened the company’s future. Being part of the Berkshire family has been one of the greatest privileges of our careers.”
And, finally, a few odds and ends to finish off the week…
Berkshire Hathaway topped Allianz SE as the largest insurance company by non-banking assets in AM Best’s latest global rankings. This ends Allianz’s five-year reign atop this particular list.
Kraft Heinz plans to spend more than $60 million this year to boost its flagging mac-and-cheese business. Its market share in this area has dropped from 45% to 39% in the past three years, as healthier, upscale options like Goodles make their mark. And recent sales data show no signs of an imminent turnaround.
The Wall Street Journal also revealed the fiery internal reaction to Kraft Heinz’s proposed separation: “Tensions flared in the company’s upper ranks. Many employees were uncertain who was calling the shots and which company they would end up working for, sowing further chaos.”
NetJets president Patrick Gallagher shared a few fun statistics from the past year, offering a glimpse into the lifestyle of private aviation. In 2025, more than 10,300 flights included pets and other furry friends; 27,000+ bottles of champagne were popped aboard NetJets aircraft; and over 400 members celebrated milestone anniversaries with the company, with some as high as thirty years.
I wonder how much Chevron can promise to help for Venezuelan oil field improvements is they are buying other assets.