Warren Buffett, who built Berkshire Hathaway Inc. into a business valued at more than $1.16 trillion and himself into a celebrity billionaire renowned for his investing acumen and witticisms, will step down at year-end after six decades atop the conglomerate.

Greg Abel, the vice chairman for non-insurance operations, will take charge of the conglomerate, Buffett, 94, said Saturday at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.

Berkshire grew aggressively over the decades with Buffett as chairman and CEO, as he chose acquisitions and stocks for the company portfolio alongside trusted adviser and vice chairman, Charlie Munger, who died in 2023 at 99. The conglomerate acquired a bewildering assortment of businesses, which Buffett often said mirrored the US economy as a whole. A bet on Berkshire, he said, was a bet on America.

“The world is Berkshire’s oyster — a world offering us a range of opportunities far beyond those realistically open to most companies,” Buffett said in his annual letter released in 2015.

Buffett had the ear of fellow CEOs and some presidents, and could draw a crowd of tens of thousands of shareholders to Omaha, Nebraska, every year for the firm’s annual meeting.

His investing success, a 20% compounded annual gain in Berkshire stock between 1965 and 2024, compared with about 10% for the S&P 500, gave him the power to move stocks and helped him strike lucrative deals with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and General Electric Co. during times of crisis.

Buffett started managing money when he was young, a disciple of Benjamin Graham’s investing style. He moved more into the corporate world when his Buffett Partnership Ltd. bought shares of Berkshire. In 1965, he took control of the rest of the business.

Composed mostly of struggling textile operations that would eventually fade away, Berkshire became the foundation for Buffett’s modern-day giant. Piece by piece, he built and acquired operations into a varied set of industries, including insurance — which gave him cash, or “float” — to help his investing strategy.

Now, Berkshire owns businesses ranging from railroad BNSF to auto insurer Geico, sprawling energy operations, and even retailers such as Dairy Queen and See’s Candies. Its collection of companies generated $47.4 billion of annual operating earnings in 2024. Buffett also built up the stock portfolio — populating it with giant bets on the likes of Apple Inc. and American Express — and offering Berkshire another way to participate in the gains of businesses that it didn’t fully own.