The Berkshire Beat: July 3, 2026
All of the latest Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway news!
Aloha from the sunny paradise of Hawaii!
A fitting backdrop to ring in America’s 250th birthday from our 50th state.
This promises to be a special holiday weekend for many — but none more so than for Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel. The Alberta native, who has long called the American heartland home, became a U.S. citizen last month.
And did so in quintessentially American fashion.
Abel was sworn in via a naturalization ceremony held at an Iowa Cubs minor league baseball game, where he also threw out the first pitch. True to his low-key style, there wasn’t a word about him running one of the world’s most-valuable companies.
Though Abel did rock a pretty sweet American flag belt to mark the occasion.
Warren Buffett teased the news of his successor’s impending citizenship at the AGM — and now it’s official. “It means something to him to become an American citizen,” Buffett told CNBC, holding that feeling up as part of the “special sauce” that makes this country so successful. Glad to have Greg on board in time for the 250th!
More news and notes from the Berkshire Hathaway orbit…
The Wall Street Journal reports that Warren Buffett will delay his traditional mid-year donation to the Gates Foundation until an investigation into its ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein plays out. The review, conducted by the law firm WilmerHale, should be complete sometime this summer. Buffett said back in March that he hasn’t spoken to Bill Gates since the Epstein Files were released — a timeline Gates himself confirmed last month in testimony before the House Oversight Committee.
The article also noted that while Gates was not formally barred from the Berkshire AGM this year, he was told he couldn’t sit on the floor with other VIPs like Apple CEO Tim Cook. In the end, he chose not to attend.
Taylor Morrison released a proxy statement to shareholders — and laid out the entire timeline of its acquisition by Berkshire. It all started when an unnamed homebuilder offered $71 a share for TM late last year. That offer spurred the company to shop itself around, approaching six other (somewhat) interested parties — none of whom bit. Goldman Sachs then connected CEO Sheryl Palmer with Abel in April, given Berkshire’s long history in homebuilding. The pair met in-person three times in May before agreeing to $72.50 a share (which was also the 52-week high closing price).
An interesting wrinkle: It wasn’t until May 30 — one day before the deal was publicly announced — that Abel told Palmer he wanted her to stay on as CEO.
Nick Sleep and Qais Zakaria made almost all of their money at Nomad Investment Partnership from just three investments: Amazon, Costco, and Berkshire Hathaway. Richer, Wiser, Happier author William Green recently shared an excerpt from an unpublished interview with Sleep that captures the logic behind this unusually concentrated approach. “What we got right was we knew we weren’t very good on lots of things,” said Sleep, “so it made sense to us only to have a few shares, because those were the only things we ever understood and we ever really knew.”
Stripe co-founder John Collison echoed his friend Charlie Munger’s philosophy on the value of multidisciplinary education on a recent episode of the TBPN podcast. And, specifically, he urged students to pursue double majors and learn the big ideas from different disciplines to set them apart as AI reshapes the job market. “Charlie talked about the importance of being multidisciplinary,” said Collison. “He thinks getting a functional understanding of many disciplines is not that hard. You can just go read the books now or you can talk to your AI about it. I think multidisciplinary thinkers are going to do incredibly well.”
Dairy Queen is heading back to Puerto Rico — with plans to open twenty restaurants across the island over the next decade. The first will open in San Juan in early 2027. “We are pleased to add Puerto Rico as a market for DQ restaurants,” said international COO Nicolas Boudet. “This new deal expands our established footprint in the Caribbean, Central America, and Mexico.”
Last year, Berkshire created the BH Jewelry Group to house subsidiaries Helzberg Diamonds and Ben Bridge Jeweler. And, now, we might be seeing the first bits of synergy arising from this arrangement. The Ben Bridge location at Pearlridge Center in Hawaii will reportedly switch to sister brand Helzberg at the end of this month.
Barron’s notes that two of Berkshire investment manager Ted Weschler’s most significant stock picks crushed the market in 1H 2026. Davita has gained 105.1% so far this year, while Sirius XM clocks in at a still-mighty-impressive 48.7%.
In the final week of June, Berkshire once again topped up its stakes in two of the Japanese trading houses. According to filings, the conglomerate now owns 10.83% of Mitsui and 10.32% of Marubeni. This comes after similar additions to Mitsubishi and Sumitomo back in May. Presumably, then, we might see something pop up with Itochu in the next month or two.