Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway tops US$1 trillion, joining tech firms, Apple, Nvidia
Warren Buffett’s conglomerate joins tech giants like Apple, Nvidia, and Microsoft with a market value of US$1 trillion
The market value of Berkshire Hathaway surpassed US$1 trillion on Wednesday, reflecting investor confidence in the conglomerate that Warren Buffett built over nearly six decades into what many consider a proxy for the American economy.
Berkshire joined six other companies, mainly from the technology sector, above US$1 trillion: Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon.com and Facebook parent Meta Platforms.
The valuation is based on Berkshire’s 553,234 class A and 1,325,192,508 class B shares outstanding as of July 23. Berkshire has slowed its stock repurchases this year.
In morning trading, the class A shares traded up 0.7 per cent at US$696,005.94.
Berkshire’s dozens of insurance, energy, manufacturing, retail and service businesses generated US$22.8 billion of profit in the year’s first half, up 26 per cent from a year earlier.
The businesses include Geico car insurance, the BNSF railroad, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Brooks running shoes, Dairy Queen ice cream, Ginsu knives and the World Book encyclopaedia, among others.
Berkshire also has a huge stock portfolio led by Apple, though it has sold more than half its Apple shares this year.
