Warren Buffett Hands Berkshire CEO Role to Greg Abel After 60-Year Run

Corporate power rarely survives its founder: Standard Oil fragmented after Rockefeller stepped back in the 1890s, and GE drifted post-Welch in the 2000s. Buffett’s carefully scripted hand-off resembles Amazon’s 2021 Bezos-to-Jassy shift more than those abrupt transitions, betting that a decentralized empire of cash-spinning insurers, railroads and utilities can transcend the personality cult. The move tests two century-scale trends: the shrinking life-span of S&P firms (median age <20 years today versus 60 years in 1960) and the growing dominance of capital allocators over operators. If Abel sustains Berkshire’s cash discipline and opportunistic acquisitions, the conglomerate could become a rare case study in institutional permanence; if not, history suggests even trillion-dollar moats erode quickly. Either way, the baton pass marks the end of one of capitalism’s longest single-leader eras—an inflection reminiscent of 1913 when J.P. Morgan’s death forced Wall Street to evolve without its lodestar.