Buffett's legacy-a 5 million% return

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From 1964 — the year before Buffett took control of Berkshire — to 2024, the one-of-a-kind conglomerate delivered a compounded annual gain of 19.9%, nearly double the S&P 500
's 10.4%, resulting in an overall return of more than 5.5 million percent, according to the company’s latest annual report. The shares added another 10% to that return in 2025.



The record was built on an unusually spare formula: use insurance float as a source of low-cost capital, buy businesses with durable cash flows and allow time to do most of the work. That approach produced long-held stakes in companies such as Coca-Cola
and American Express
, while Berkshire expanded into railroads, utilities and manufacturing through wholly owned subsidiaries.

“If it was that easy to do again, somebody would be doing it,” Bill Stone, chief investment officer at Glenview Trust Company and a Berkshire shareholder, said. “You think about the duo that having Charlie Munger as your partner, it’s just hard to imagine that coming together again anytime soon.”

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