Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway tops $1 trillion in market value

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway topped $1 trillion in market value for the first time on Wednesday, becoming the first non-tech US company to do so.
Shares in the Nebraska-headquartered company rose more than 1 per cent during morning trading to cross the threshold. Berkshire Hathaway’s shares have grown 28.49 per cent so far this year, outpacing the S&P 500’s yearly gains.
Mr Buffett’s conglomerate now joins a small list of companies to have reached a market value of $1 trillion. The others – all tech companies – include Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta.
As of Wednesday 7.30pm UAE time, Berkshire Hathaway had a market cap of $1.004 trillion.
Berkshire Hathaway’s cash pile rose to $276.9 billion in the second quarter of this year, the company reported in its earnings report in August. The jump came as Mr Buffett sold nearly half of the company’s stake in Apple.
Earlier on Wednesday, he sold an additional $982 million of Bank of America stock. Berkshire has sold roughly $5.4 billion worth of the US bank’s shares since mid-July, although it is still the company’s largest shareholder.
The transactions occurred on August 23, 26 and 27, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr Buffett has remained quiet on the reasoning behind the moves.
Mr Buffett, along with the late vice chairman Charlie Munger, transitioned the former textile manufacturer into a conglomerate beginning in 1965.
In his annual letter to shareholders earlier this year, Mr Buffett said Berkshire Hathaway should perform “a bit better than the average American corporation”.
“And, more important, should also operate with materially less risk of permanent loss of capital. Anything beyond ‘slightly better,’ though, is wishful thinking,” he wrote.
Mr Buffett also paid tribute to Mr Munger, who died in November at the age of 99. Mr Buffett credited his business partner as being the “architect” of the present company.