Warren Buffett’s Wealth Surges $24 Billion As Tech Gets Hammered

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Apr 26, 8:54AM EDT

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Warren Buffett’s Legacy
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Warren Buffett’s Wealth Surges $24 Billion As Tech Gets Hammered — © Canva | Wikimedia Commons and Motortion from Getty Images

Warren Buffett does not own shares in the Magnificent Seven except for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction). Over the last several quarters, he has looked like a genius as he has cut his ownership of Apple’s shares. For example, Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) stock is down 29% this year, Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) stock is down 13%, and Nvidia’s (NASDAQ: NVDA) stock is down 17%. Buffett’s flagship Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) shares are up 17% over the same period and trades near the the top of its 52-week price range. Berkshire has also kept well over $300 billion on its balance sheet, but no one knows why.

Buffett owns 15% of Berkshire Hathaway and has additional shares, giving him 38% of the voting stock. The company’s market cap is $1.15 trillion, which puts it eighth on the list of the most valuable companies in the world.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaire List, Buffett ranks fourth at $168 billion, up $24 billion this year. The four other people at the top of the list are tech billionaire founders; each lost ground in 2025.
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One reason for Berkshire’s success is the diversification of its equity holdings, which include stakes in Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), American Express (NYSE: AXP), Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY), Visa (NYSE: V), Chubb (NYSE: CB), Chevron (NYSE: CVX), and other public companies.

Berkshire also has substantial investments in private companies, including insurance company giant GEICO and BNSF Railway, the largest freight railroad in the United States.

Investors can also examine Buffett’s long-term track record. A $10,000 investment in Berkshire 30 years ago would be worth $682,000 today.

Additionally, Buffett favors insurance companies. He owns Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group, National Indemnity Company, and Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, which focuses on business and commercial insurance. Describing these investments, he said, “It’s so much fun because you get the money at the start, you know, and then find out whether you’ve done something stupid later on.”

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.