About Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, said at the company’s 2026 annual shareholder meeting that the transition of CEO duties to Greg Abel is “all working” and that Abel is “doing everything I did and then some.” Buffett described the current environment for deploying Berkshire’s cash as “not ideal,” noting that the company has roughly $380 billion in cash on hand. He characterized much of today’s market activity as “gambling,” comparing the markets to “a church with a casino attached” and stating that “the casino’s gotten very attractive to people.” He said that buying one-day options is “not investing” and “not speculating,” but “gambling.”
Buffett also reflected on Berkshire’s $35 billion investment in Apple, which he said has grown to about $185 billion pre-tax over ten years. He praised Tim Cook’s leadership, saying Cook “succeeded a legend” in Steve Jobs and calling Cook’s record “one of the miracles of American business management.” In a separate interview, Buffett said his message to shareholders and partners is to follow the golden rule: “Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.” He added that he has not learned new industries in recent years and that he understands fewer businesses as a percentage of the whole than he did a decade ago.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Warren Buffett's recent appearances.
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✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Warren Buffett0:00
If you look at the leading candy bars for the last 50 years, I think you'll find Snickers on top, and then you've got M&Ms. You got two types, so they don't combine the penis with the other ones, but I think they're number two and four, and you know Hershey's in there number three or something of the short. Yeah, I can't take them on. I don't say I don't think Eli should take a bond. You know, they have moats. When you go into a drugstore, 7-Eleven, or something and you say, 'I would like a Snickers bar,' and the owner says, 'Oh, I've got something, the Musk bar at ten cents off the Snickers bar,' you say, 'Give me the Snickers.' And if he doesn't give you the Snickers, you go across the street and buy the Snickers. The brands, brands are moats. I mean, obviously, and if you try to, you know, this product is selling to hundreds of millions of people who want Coca-Cola. If you say, 'I'll sell you something for two cents less or I've got some celebrity's name on it,' they actually, Richard Branson tried Virgin Cola in the United States about 15 or 20 years ago, and a million others have been tried. So, I don't really have the same urge to produce automobiles that he apparently has to produce candy, but I don't suggest any take on Snickers.
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Interviewer1:27
You're taking me literally and stepping away from the real story here, which is kind of this war of words between you and Charlie and Elon. And I just, do you even know Elon Musk?
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Warren Buffett1:36
I've never, I've never said anything negative about England. I mean, you know, you're baiting me a little bit to do it, but I am, but I've never, you know, I, people like his car and everything, but did somebody mention that now he's talking about financing something this morning about that? I thought I heard that earlier.
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Interviewer1:56
Yes, well, actually Andrew just read some headlines where it looked like they may be, Tesla may be going back to market to pick up some additional financing. I'm not entirely sure. All it was, all I heard was the headline. That's what I call a counter-revelation. I mean, Charlie, you know, because I think it was just a few days ago they said they wouldn't need financing.
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Warren Buffett2:16
It's, but you know, he's trying something to improve a product and I salute him for that, and the American public will decide whether it's a success. And it's not easy, you know. It's probably easier to develop a new car that competes with Snickers, but some products have terrific moats. You know, probably Elmer's glue does, WD-40. I mean, you can, there's just certain things that you are not much inclined to be dissatisfied with. And I would say that incidentally that the iPhone, you know, has a terrific moat. I mean, people that have an iPhone, or maybe have some other phone, but they want to continue with the product that they've got. They want the new version. It's just easier for them. They learn how to do everything and their life's built around it and all of that. And moats are very useful. Costco has a moat in people's mind. I mean, Amazon can raise the price of Prime, you know, 20, and you can't do that unless you've built something within that image of the Amazon Prime that's based on reality, that you're going to get a lot for your money and you're going to want to use it, and then you can raise prices 20. But if you're selling some commodity product, you can't do that. You need a moat.
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