yeah don't wear out all your clapping on Charlie I mean uh in addition uh well we have first of all Greg AEL a director and and a g Jane sitting ex him runs insurance [Applause] and moving then to this back of this first section if if each of the directors there would remain standing till we finish we'll uh we'll go alphabetically down the line and we've got Howard Buffett we have Susan Buffett Steve Steve Burke Ken Chanel Chris Davis Sue Decker Charlotte Gman Tom Murphy Jr Ron Olen Wally whites and Merl Whitmer okay uh there are two people I would like to thank and then we'll get on to the uh brief description of the results of the uh first quarter uh first of all I'd like to thank Melissa Shapiro who put this whole event together that you can't imagine the work that goes into it but she just reported to me that we set a new record for seiz candy I think they brought on six tons and they will sell out uh and one thing I do want to mention we have only one book as a bookstore The Bookworm this this uh year normally we have about 25 but we have p po poor Charlie Almanac fourth edition and I think we sold about 2400 of them yesterday and uh uh that will be the only book next next year we'll go back to having our usual selection uh but we thought we would uh just turn it over to Charlie this year and then uh I would like to introduce one further person and that's uh the person who put that movie together and you can't imagine the amount of work it is because for example on those scenes that we've used from the past uh if they involved uh Hollywood stars or burgus people we needed to get permission all over again to show it because we're we told them originally we would only show it uh within the confines of our uh Auditorium here and uh of course it went out on CNBC and and you just can't imagine how much effort but also the the the great cooperation we got from uh all those Desperate Housewives and jam Lee and with the Desperate Housewives we we had to get Disney's okay and and that was easy to get but running down five Desperate Housewives that one came on came in toward the end but we that that the job of putting this together has been handled by the same fellow that handles us been doing these for years and years and years and years and I just would appreciate it if you could just put the spotlight on Brad Underwood for just a minute okay we um we put out some results uh for the first quarter this morning at 7:00 our time and uh uh some uh few sharpy analysts and and uh press people already picked up one or two items from it which I'm sure we'll get some questions on later but if we can start out with slide number one which is should be showing now you'll see that that in the first quarter the way and we talk about operating earnings at Berkshire we we explained that many times is why we think these figures that we give you are the most descriptive of what's really going on in the business and and take out the wild swings in the market that uh that otherwise just uh you know and that was reporting big earnings one quarter and big losses another quarter we we pay no attention to those at Berkshire but you will see that that we had uh a better than average quarter uh and a g Jane wants me to point out to everyone that you cannot take the insurance earnings of the first quarter and multiply by four uh it it it just doesn't work that way in insurance and uh while we insure storms around the world the major storms for example that would affect our earnings would be probably number one would be some something uh that went along the that came in at the wrong place from our standpoint and then just kept going up the east coast and that's our that's our number one risk as we evaluate things but we're in all kinds of risks there can be an earthquake tomorrow there can be an earthquake 10 years from now and then they're you know we we're in that sort of business but the first quarter does does um hit the uh should be our best quarter certainly shouldn't be our worst quarter the most likely quarter to be the worst quarters the third quarter but anything can happen insurance but fortunately nothing much happened in Insurance during the first quarter so we had much improved earnings in in Insurance underwriting and then our investment income was was almost bound to well it was almost certain to increase and I said that in the annual report because yields are so much higher than they were uh last year and we have uh a lot of fixed short short-term Investments that are very responsive to the changes in interest rates so that figure is up substantially and I can predict that that one will be up uh for the year uh uh we've got more money to invest as we'll get to in a minute and uh that's fairly predictable uh so that number will be up when you get into the into the railroad the railroad earnings uh we down modestly and and uh but uh we should not immediately but we we we should be earning somewhat more money than we are earning under present traffic conditions and then traffic conditions can also hit the uh earning uh it's a potential earnings of the railroad and uh if you want every Wednesday uh you can get car loadings from the previous week and I'll reg go a little deranged if you do get them but I get them every week uh they're available and you'll see that loadings have been running uh for the industry have been running down modestly and uh uh these earnings are were as is expected but but we should earn somewhat more money than that on the equivalent amount of car loadings and uh uh uh we in the Energy company uh we had better earnings but our earnings were distorted well they they were affected by conditions that I wrote about in the annual report and we'll undoubtedly discuss more this morning but uh a uh off a low base of last year they were up somewhat and uh so you get uh down to the final figure and uh 11.2 billion is uh it's quite an improvement from last year but we would expect our earnings should go up modestly from year to year because after all we we're retaining like 37 billion last year of earnings so if we put 37 billion more you left it with us uh we should do something that's satisfactory and the goal of Berkshire economic goal is to increase the operating earnings and increase the shares outstanding it's that simple to describe it's not quite so simple to pull off necessarily but that that that's what we're attempting to do and if we'll turn to slide two please I've got the history and I I just picked the pre pandemic uh uh year of when we hit 24 billion and then we fell off in the first year of the pandemic and then as you see we've moved up from 27 to 30 to 37 billion and uh interesting thing about these earnings is they're after depreciation and amortization and taxes and all that sort of thing so you can figure that essentially uh berer has a little over hundred million dollar per day including weekends and holidays coming in to uh deploy and uh We've set out many times when we're attempting to we're attempting to deploy that money but but we have that responsibility and uh um sometimes if you'll turn to the next page uh well you'll see how that's built up the shareholders Equity so that Berkshire uh had that March 31st 500 74 billion and uh uh through retaining earnings and we've been retaining earnings ever since we took control of Berkshire out the way except one day as I remember I think it was maybe 1968 or n i i the directors declared a 10 cent a share dividend and I I think I must have been in the restroom or something at the time but uh uh so uh if you leave out that period of Madness uh we've been retaining our we've been saving your money putting it to work and sometimes sometimes we've done things that were big mistakes and but but never we never get close to fatal mistakes and every now and then we do something that really works and as Charlie pointed out in my past you know it's really there's probably been a half a dozen to a dozen over 57 or 58 or whatever it would be uh really important big decisions and there's been nothing close to fatal uh so that continues to be the guideline and uh uh we have accumulated 571 billion and I I couldn't help uh but look at who's second and uh uh JP Morgan Had 327 billion at year end and and they're up to 338 I believe at end of the quarter and but they pay significant dividends they repurchase shares they've got a business that earns better Returns on Equity but they they don't plow it and they shouldn't uh they don't plow it back exactly like we have and it this does show what can be done uh really without any Miracles if you if you save money uh over time and uh we have a group of shareholders we had a group of Partners originally Charlie and I did that wanted to save money and uh left their money with like in that film you just saw you saw Eddie and Dorothy Davis and uh the Davis family and the children and the grandchildren uh periodically did some other things with the money but they also basically left it with us and and we were a savings vehicle and uh they were able to do live very well but they weren't they weren't trying to to live like the uh the kings and queens of earlier capitalism and used to build the houses and in uh uh New England and you know have a servant but standing by and everybody eating and all that sort of things so we've had very few what I would call look at me uh type people that are attracted there's nothing wrong with it but but uh but they just go someplace else and uh and they are spending uh uh sort of unbelievable sums after a while by the standards of the past and our people nobody we've have nobody that's a that's a miser or a hoarder or anything like that in our group they live very well but the math of compounding and a long long Runway uh have done wonders and we will talk a little later uh uh right before lunch we'll we'll give an illustration of that of what can be done with that sort of philosophy uh so uh our cash and treasury bills were 182 billion at the quarter end and I think it's a fair assumption uh that they prob probably about 200 billion at the uh end of the uh this quarter um we'd love to spend it but we won't spend it unless we think we're doing something that has very little risk and can make us a lot of money and and uh uh and our stock is at a level where it's it's adds slightly to the value when we buy in shares but we would we would really uh buy it in in a big way except you can't buy it in a big way because people don't want to sell it in a big way uh but if under certain market conditions we could deploy quite a bit of money in in in uh repurchases and as you'll see on the final slide uh uh we have bought it in the last five years uh we can't buy them like a great many other companies because it just doesn't doesn't trade that way the volume isn't the same because we have investors and we and the investors the the people in this room really uh they don't think about selling they probably I would hope many of you don't even check the price daily uh or weekly uh you know it uh the people who check the price daily have not made the money that the people have forgotten about it basically have over the years uh um it uh and that's sort of the story of birkshire will try to increase operating earnings and uh we will try to uh reduce shares when it makes sense to do so and we will hope for an occasional big opportunity and we're quite satisfied with the position we're in uh so with that background I think we'll turn it over to uh Becky quick and we will alternate questions between Becky and uh those of you in the audience and uh uh Becky you want to start with the first question sure thanks Warren um let's start just given what you mentioned there was some news that came out in the 10q this morning it shows that Burkshire sold another 115 million shares of Apple in this last quarter that's berkshire's largest holding and I I think in that vein we'll start with a question from Sherman lamb he is a 27-year-old Berkshire hathway class shareholder uh from Malaysia he asks um last year you mentioned Coca-Cola and American Express being Burkes two long duration partial ownership positions and you spent some time talking about the virt virtues of both these wonderful businesses in your recent shareholder letter I noticed that you have excluded Apple from this group of businesses have you or your investment manager views of the economics of Apple's business or its attractiveness as an investment changed since Berkshire first invested in 2016 uh no I would the but we have so shares and uh I would say that at the end of the year I would think it extremely likely that that uh that uh Apple is the largest common stock holding we have now one interesting thing is that uh Charlie and I uh looked at Common Stocks or marketable equities or the things that people love to look at as being uh businesses and so when we when we own a Dairy Queen or we own whatever it may be uh we look at that as a business and when we look own Coca-Cola uh or American Express or apple we look at that as a business now we can buy really wonderful company compies in the market as businesses we can't buy all of them I mean all of the their shares we can't buy 90% or 80% or anything like that but when we look at Coca-Cola and American Express and apple we look at them as businesses now there's differences in tax factors there's difference in manage of responsibility a whole bunch of things but in terms of deploying your money uh we always look at every stock as a business and we don't we have no way no attempt made to predict markets we have no attempt made to uh uh pick stocks I went through many many years uh doing the wrong thing uh I got interested in stocks very early and I was fascinated by them and uh and I wasn't wasting my time because I was reading every book possible and everything else but finally I picked up a copy of the intelligent investor in Lincoln and and there was a few sentences in there that that said much more eloquently than I can say it but if you look at stocks as a business and treat the market as something that's doesn't tell you isn't there to instruct you but it's there to serve you uh you'll do a lot better over time uh then if you try to take charts and listen to people talk about moving averages and look at the F pronouncements and all of that sort of thing and so that made a lot of sense to me that and the way I'm we have been allowed to deploy it Charlie and I talked about this of course constantly uh it's changed over the years as the amount of capital we have in the has changed done all of that but the the basic principle was was laid out by Ben Graham in that book which uh I picked up for a couple of dollars and uh and which basically said to me you've been wasting your time now but maybe you can use what you've learned or been reading about and put it to better use and then Charlie came along and told me how to put it to even better use and that's sort of the uh story of why we own American Express which is a wonderful business we own Coca-Cola which is a wonderful business and we own Apple which is an even better business uh but uh uh and we will own let something really extraordinary happens we will own apple on American Express in Coca-Cola uh uh when Greg takes over this place and and uh uh it's it it it's such a simple approach that it's almost deceptive you most things if you keep working harder and harder at it you know you learn a little more math or you learn a little more physics but Investments you don't really have to do that you really have to have your your mindset properly so so we will we will end up andless something dramatically happens that really changes Capital allocation uh strategy and uh uh we we will uh we will have apple as our largest investment uh but I don't mind at all under current conditions building uh the uh cash position I think uh when I look at the alternative of what's available in the equity markets and I look at the composition of what's going on in the world uh uh we find it quite attractive and one one thing that may surprise you but uh uh we almost everybody I know pays a lot more attention uh to not paying taxes uh uh and I think they should uh uh uh it we we we we don't mind paying taxes at Berkshire and we are paying a 21% federal rate let the gains were taking in in uh apple and uh that rate was 35% not that long ago and it's been 52% in the in the past uh when I've been operating and uh it uh the government owns the federal government owns a part of the earnings of the business we make they don't own the assets but they own a percentage of the earnings and uh uh they can change that percentage any year and the percentage that they've decreed currently is 21% and I would say with the present fiscal policies uh I think that something has to give and I think that the higher taxes are are quite likely and uh the government wants to take a greater share of your income or mine or bures uh they can do it and uh uh they may decide that someday they don't want the fiscal deficit to be this large because that has some important consequences and they may not want to decrease spending a lot and they may decide they'll take a larger percentage of what we earn and we'll pay it and we always hope at Berkshire to pay substantial federal income taxes we think it's appropriate that a company a country that's been as has been as generous to our owners it's it's been the place I was luy Berkshire was lucky was here and uh uh if we if we send in a check like we did last year we sent in over5 billion to the US federal government and if 800 other companies had done the same thing no other person in the United States would have had to pay a dime of federal taxes whether income taxes no social security taxes no estate taxes no it's open and down the line now that's that's uh I would I would like to I I hope things develop well enough with Burkshire that we we say we're in the 800 club and uh and maybe even move up a few notches uh it doesn't bother me in the least uh to write that check and uh I would really hope with the all of America's done for all of you shouldn't bother you that we do it and if if I'm doing it at 21% this year and we're doing it at a higher percentage later on I don't think you'll actually mind the the fact that uh we sold a little apple this year okay let's go to section one hi Mr Buffett this is Matthew Li from China Hong Kong I'm running my last listing company called fop fop and we are so grateful that you learn from you and you really Inspire us my question is besides the electrical Car Company B under what circumstances you will reinvest and reconsider to invest Hong Kong and China company thank you yeah well uh our primary investments will always be in in the United States uh we do think it now the companies we invest in the United States American Express does business around the world and no company hardly does business around the world like Coca-Cola I mean they're they are the preferred uh soft drink you know something maybe like1 70 or 180 out of 200 company 200 countries those are rough approximations from few years back probably but but that degree of acceptance worldwide is uh I think it's almost unmatched I can't really think of any company that has it American Express uh has a position uh and the uh credit card bill which I think is extremely strong and um uh and part of that was one of the director part of the reasons for that is one of the directors that introduced a few few minutes ago Ken chanol but it it is it is strengthen dramatically over the last 20 years for a lot of reasons uh so we will the the byd investment was a uh and well we we made we made the commitment in Japan which I did 5 years ago and and that was just overwhelmingly was compelling uh it was extraordinarily compelling and we put we bought it as fast as we could and we spent a year and you know we got a few percent of our Assets in five very big companies but that's the problem of being our size but you won't find us making a lot of Investments uh outside the United States although we're participating through these other companies in the world economy uh but I understand uh the United States rules weaknesses strengths whatever it may be I I don't I don't have the same feeling for for uh economies generally out around the world I don't I don't pick up on other cultures extremely well and and lucky thing is I don't have to because you know I don't live in some tiny little country that has no uh just doesn't have a big economy but got I'm in an economy already that has uh you know after starting out with a half a percent of the world's population has ended up with well over 20% of the world's output in in an amazingly short period of time so so I we will we will be American oriented uh uh I mean if if we do something really big it's extremely likely to be in the United States uh Charlie uh uh in all those years there's only two times he's told me that you know this one is really you know he he would he would always go along with me and you know and say well when I was suggesting something say well this is really not that great but but it's probably the best you'll come up with so I'll go along with the idea and uh but Charlie Charlie twice has pounded the table with me and just said you know uh uh by bye bye and uh byd was one of them and and Costco was the other and uh we bought a certain amount of Costco we bought quite a bit of byd but but uh but looking back uh I he already was as aggressive but I should have been more aggressive uh in in Costco it wasn't fatal that we weren't but but he was right big time in both companies and uh uh I will I'm aware of what goes on in most markets but I think it's unlikely that that we make any large commitments uh in almost any country you can name although you know we don't rule it out entirely and uh I feel extremely good about our Japanese position and we'll have that um I don't know how many years Greg will be sitting with that at some point and and we couldn't be happier with that but you really have to we really have a different Outlook in looking at at at well we look at your money which we couldn't bear to lose and we feel that we we're bar less likely to make any truly major mistakes in the United States than in many other countries okay Becky uh this next question comes from Stanley Holmes who is a Berkshire shareholder from Salt Lake City he asks in his 2024 annual letter to shareholders chairman Buffett noted the severe earnings disappointment experienced at Berkshire hathway energy last year and expressed concern about earnings and asset values in the utility industry recognizing that investors are worried about climate change related expenses and that new uncertainties Cloud the regulatory environment the chairman suggested that some jurisdictions may adopt the Public Power model there are now signs that policy makers in Utah stating uh citing state sovereignity may already be poised to move in that direction the Utah legislature recently mandated the state's right to serve as sole purchaser of energy from an instate power plant and under some some circumstances purchase the power plant before it can be retired the state utility regulator will be legally bound to prioritize public purchases of power and Facilities that could include assets owned by Burkshire haway energy specific work utility Rocky Mountain Power will Burkshire through bhe continue to invest resources in jurisdictions where corporate assets may be subject to confiscatory State policies and actions and how is Berkshire energy working with officials in Utah to minimize potential corporate losses if and when State control is asserted over its electrical utility sector yeah I will Greg join with me in the answer on this but I would say our our feeling is that Utah is actually very likely to treat us fairly whether the action is in in granting appropriate rates that give us the return we expected generally expected in in terms of Our Own Properties or if they decide for some reason to go to Public Power I think they would compensate us fairly uh uh in the 1930s George Norris the senator from Nebraska just turned Nebraska into a public power State and uh our experience in Iowa uh would indicate that that uh free enterprise has its role and that uh uh we can run a a privately owned uh utility company uh that will be more efficient for society than at least in Most states people can do uh with Public Power uh but what has happened is that there's going to be enormous amount money enormous amounts of money uh spent on power uh and we've been we're if you're going to do it with with uh uh private owners there's nobody better situated than Berkshire to satisfy the the portion but a large portion of the need needs of the country and and we will do it at at at a rate of return that is is not you know it's not designed to make us make us rich or anything like that it's it's it's a sensible rate of return but uh we won't do it if we think we're not going to get any return it' be kind of crazy and uh uh we've seen actions in a few states where uh there some of the costs associated with climate change are not being regarded as as uh cost of the utility shouldn't incur well believe me if it was publicly owned they would have incurred it too but but we will We the wood Society tells us and we have got the money and we've got we've the knowledge to participate big in something that is enormously important for the country but we're not going to do we're not going to we're not going to throw good money after after bad and field I don't worry about my understanding is and Greg can elaborate on this now immediately uh but I don't regard Utah as uh being unfriendly uh to the idea of utilities being treated fairly Charlie Charlie I'm so [Laughter] [Applause] used I had actually checked myself a couple times already but I'll slip I'll slip again that's a a great honor word um yeah when we well War you touched on it initially in your letter uh relative to the the challenges in the industry and then you've just alluded to the significant investment that has to go into the energy industry the utility sector for for many years to come and and I think if we start there if I think of our different utilities and will definitely come to to Utah and Pacific Corp but if you look at the underlying demand that is building in each of those utilities and the amount of dollars that are going to have to go in to meet that demand it's absolutely incredible so when you raised it in your letter it's a really important issue we have to have a regulatory compact that works between if it's a public utility it has to work in in concert with the the state Utah being an example or It ultimately becomes potentially a public power entity so if just to just to set the the frame a little bit if I think of Iowa which you meant mentioned and the underlying we've made substantial Investments there it's been very consistent with both the the public policy that the state and legislator wanted and they enacted very specific laws to encourage that but that utility is more than a hundred years old right now and if we look at the demand that's in place for Mid-American Iowa Iowa utility over the next say into the mid 2030 um associated with AI and the data centers that that demand doubles in that short period of time and that happen and it took a hundred years plus to get where we are today and now it's going to double and for and that will require substantial amounts of capital from the from Mid-American and its shareholders and how that will function is if we have a proper regulatory compact in place which which you've highlighted if we then go to say Nevada where we we own two utilities there uh and and cover the lon share in Nevada if you go over a similar time frame and you look at the underlying demand in in that utility uh and say go into the later 2030s it triples the the underlying demand and billions and billions of dollars have to be put in our rate basee will literally go from um uh it's not a modest level now uh but you're talking uh probably an incremental 6 to 10 billion at least of rate base going into that type of entity which requires um again alignment with the the state and their policies and a proper recovery of our underlying both capital and uh a return on Capital so when we come to the wildfires that's been a substantial challenge because it's the first time there's been a lot of discussion around one of our utilities one experienced significant losses associated with the the the wildfires what portion of those costs will be recovered and that's really the the dialogue we're in and does that properly properly work uh when I think of the wildfires were there's been many claims and a a recent additional claim last week for $30 billion do and it's we we don't take that lightly but it is an incremental claim to an already existing lawsuit that's in place and when I think of Pacific Corp we're we're in a place where um first and foremost all the litigation will be challenged because the basis for it um uh uh uh at least we believe there's places where it's un unfounded and we'll continue to challenge it uh and it will take many years to be resolved as as Warren highlighted in the letter but if you think of Pacific Corp uh and the litigation there um number one how we how we think and operate those assets have to change because we've had a regul we we have worked with the states across all our states for many years years with the fundamental goal to be to keep the power on and our our teams and our employees worked incredibly hard to keep the power on day in day out through storms unfortunately through the 2020 fires the instincts were not to turn off the power the Instinct was to keep the power on to keep hospitals uh fire stations responding am it's not in their mind to or at least cultur it wasn't in our minds to De energize so the first thing we had to do was step back and say we've got to fundamentally change the culture not just at Pacific courp but across all our utilities the first thing we have to recognize is that there's now going to be uh situations where we prioritize de-energizing the assets and that's completely different than we've how we've operated those assets as I've highlighted for 100 plus years so we we start with the culture we had to change that the second thing is we've now changed our operating systems so that we can turn off the power very quickly if there's a fire that's encroaching we will turn off our systems now and we'll go the minute the the the conditions are safe again we'll re-energize it but we've had to do that and then the uh third thing is continuing to invest in a way that uh allows us to try to minimize the risk of the fire but when you get back to Utah and Pacific Corp the challenge we do have is within Pacific Corp as we go through both litigation and through continuing to operate that entity it generates a certain amount of of capital and profits that will remain in that entity and be reinvested back into that business but but fundamentally as we go forward we need both legislative and Regulatory reform across the Pacific Corp States if we're if we're going to deploy incremental Capital make incremental contributions into that business as waren said we don't want to uh throw good Capital after um bad Capital so we'll be very disciplined there but the reality is there are opportunities to both solve the the legislative and Regulatory Solutions and the and the best example we actually have and I think it's the gold standard across the country is Utah so as Warren touched on it's a it's a state we're we're happy we're investing in it is part of Pacific corpse so there's a certain amount of balance there as to how we do it but in the last legislative session that that existed Utah actually passed a bill that does a couple very important things one it caps non-economic damages on Wildfire claims so if you go back to the wildfires we have in Oregon um and the claims you're hearing filed for there's economic damages associated with them and and those harms should receive the economic damages associated with that but unfortunately and even though there's legislature and and case law in Oregon that says um wildfire non-economic damages should not be awarded there's very substantial non-economic damages being awarded there Utah took a very proactive position to say we will cap those non-economic damages and it creates an environment again it's back to that is there an environment where you want to invest in yes and then and then incrementally they've created a very substantial fund it's a literally called the Wildfire fund for for fires in Utah that will help facilitate both liquidity and the ability to resolve the situation so Utah We Believe including the legislation that um a lot of other things came out of it is the actual gold standard as we go forward so very important issue for Berkshire haway energy uh but at the same time it is a Pacific issue the the risk of regulatory compacts not being respected a much broader one that will always evaluate and be careful how we deploy our Capital but um both Pacific orp will manage through it and I see other very good and significant opportunities in Pacific cor uh I mean in uh Berkshire hathway energy the the return on the return on Equity investment it's been been promulgated and been achieved over the years has been particularly in recent years well below the return on Equity that has been achieved by American industry generally and so uh the whether whether you earn X or X plus a half a percent or x minus a half a percent that differs by state and some states are more attract active another but whether you earn X or go broke is not an equation that works and uh you know we're we won't we won't put our shareholders um money they didn't give it to us to lose it all and uh uh we might like it if it's better when it's X plus a half a per and x minus a half a percent but the electric utility industry will never be as good as uh I mean just remotely as good as you know the kind of businesses we own in other Arenas I mean you look at the return on tangible Equity at at Coca-Cola or American Express or and to really top it off Apple uh it it's just it's you know it's it's just a whole different game but in utility the trade has been and the the the compact has been that you get get a a modest return and uh uh climate change comes along and it causes way more fires uh that's just a cost of doing business and doesn't mean that we can't do things to mitigate uh fires in the future and you can make different policies on when you turn off the lights but somebody's going to do somebody's going to put up many many hundred of billions maybe in the trillions and climate change enters into that and uh it can be done through Public Power or it can be done through private Enterprise to quite a degree uh and we would be certainly good for 100 billion or more but we're not going to throw good money after bad okay let's do um station for hi I'm Joe visiting from San Francisco how do you think about the role of technological advances especially generative AI on more traditional Industries thank you yeah I made a mistake in calling on four but I'll get back to two later on the uh the uh I don't know anything about about AI uh but I do I do have I don't that doesn't mean I deny its existence or importance or anything of the sort and and last year I said you know that we let a genie out of the bottle when we when we developed nuclear weapons and that Genie has been doing some terrible things lately and the power of that Genie is would you know scares the hell out of me and under that I don't know way to get the genie back in the bottle and AI is somewhat similar it it's out it's part way out of the bottle and and uh it's enormously important and it's going to be done by somebody so uh we may wish we'd never seen that Genie or may do wonderful things and I'm certainly not the person that can evaluate that and I probably wouldn't have been the person that could have evaluated during World War Two whether we tested the 20 th000 ton a bomb that we felt was absolutely necessary for the for the United States and would actually save lives in the long run but where we also had Edmund teller I think it was it was on a parallel with Einstein in terms of saying you may with this test ignite the atmosphere in such a way that Civilization doesn't continue and we decided to let the gene of the bottle and it accomplished the immediate objective but whether whether it's going to change the future Society we will find out later now ai I had one experience that does make me a little nervous and I'll just explain it that very very recently uh fairly recently I uh I saw a uh an image in front of my eyes on the screen and it was it was me and it was my voice and wearing the kind of clothes I wear and my wife or my daughter wouldn't have been able to detect any difference and I was delivering a message that no way came from me so it when you think of the potential for scamming people if you can reproduce images that I can't even tell let's say I need money you know I'm you know it's your daughter I've just had a had a uh car crash I need throw $50,000 wired I mean scamming has always been part of the American scene uh but this would make me if I was interested in investing and scamming it's going to be the growth industry of all time and it's enabled in a way I now maybe you know obviously AI has potential for good things too but I don't know how you based on the one I saw recently uh I practically would send send money to myself over in some crazy country it so uh I don't have any advice on how the world handles it because I don't think think we we know how to handle what we did with the nuclear uh Genie but I do think as someone who doesn't understand a damn thing about it that it is it has enormous potential for good and enormous potential for harm and I just don't know how that plays out uh i' I'd like to mention to Becky that that a Jeet will will not be been the the uh afternoon uh session so if you could focus on any if there are Insurance questions they want to ask that be a good one yeah this next question is for both Warren and AET um it's from Ben NL who's a Minneapolis shareholder who's been a shareholder since 1995 and he says in an interview this past year Todd col said that in first meeting you in 2010 he told you Geico is better at marketing and branding but Progressive is a data company and data is going to win in the long run but it appears you did not prioritize data analytics at Geico until a decade later when you made Todd CEO as business units like Geico age and need new strategic direct Direction I wonder if berkshire's hands-off management approach is a source of vulnerability will you please review your thinking on changes made at Geico and explain how Berkshire is structured to react if the Burkshire CEO sees that a business unit is strategically off track and a g I hope you will continue to update us on yours and Todd's progress at remedying the data analytics shortcomings at Geico J would you like to yeah uh as Warren has pointed out in the past one of the one of the drawbacks that Geico is faced with it hasn't been doing as good job as matching rate with risk and segmenting and pricing product based on the risk characteristics uh this has been a disadvantage at Kao for a few years now we are trying to still play catchup technology is something that is unfortunately a bottleneck But there again we are making progress uh and equally importantly we have hired people who are much better than what they the they inherited in terms of data analytics and pricing and slicing data so yes I recognize we still behind we're taking steps to bridge the gap and hopefully by the certainly by the end of 25 we should be able to be uh along with the best of players when it comes to data analytics whether it's pricing whether it's claims or any other factor that drives the economics of the insurance business I would add that equating rate with risk obviously is is important in every line of insurance business I mean that's what you're involved with us deciding whether a given rate offers us the chance of the probability that we will make a little money on it and that that sometimes we're only risking losing a little and sometimes we're risking losing huge amounts but but but Geico and and Progressive has done a better job that in that recently but but our fundamental Advantage at Geico of course is that we have lower costs than virtually anybody and that cost Advantage has been dramatic we've driven our underwriting expense ratio below 10% and there's there oh there's just very very very few companies that can compete with that so so it isn't it's not it's not in the least a survival question and it isn't even exactly a profitability thing but you know we would rather have x% of the market and a half of x% but but uh we roughly uh I think in the month of March we we were just uh we didn't we didn't lose policy holders and we got 16 million or whatever it is of them and and we've got the lowest cost operations so it's it's it's it's not a threat it's not remotely a threat to survival it's not a throat to it's not a threat to to even profitability but on the other hand we would like to be growing with with something that is is the best model around in the insurance business uh uh of delivering at a low cost and we now have a recognition that we didn't have back when Leo Goodwin started in 1936 but the same principle that worked then is that if you can offer somebody a good product cheaper than the other guy and and everybody PR has to buy it and it's a big business you know it's very attractive to be and and Geico is a very attractive business and has got its lowest cost thing and it does have to do a better job of matching rate to risk but but our low costs have have massed the fact that for a while that we could we could do uh without progressing as much as we should have in the matching of R to risk and now Tod has been working intensively at that and he's made a lot of progress but there's there's still work to be do be done but in the meantime we're not going to shrink and uh uh and we're going to we should make uh better underrunning profits than most companies in the AO Insurance business okay I'm going to back up and go to uh I think I left station two out of it earlier so do we have somebody there yeah good morning my name is Sebastian zaror I'm from Munich Germany but I have way is uh very respective to company in Germany and my question is who are your most dressed advisor today is it Ted and Todd is it Greg and Aid is it your wife your children and what do you value about them thank you well it depends whether they're advising me on money or on other things I I trust my children and my wife totally but that doesn't mean I ask them what stars to why the uh uh but the know I I was in terms of managing money uh there wasn't anybody better in the world to talk to for you know many many decades than Charlie and uh that doesn't mean I didn't talk to other people but if I didn't think I could do it myself I wouldn't have done it I mean it uh uh so I to some extent I talk to myself uh on investments and and and I I think my children have gotten a whole lot wiser over the years and uh uh so I listen them to on a lot of things uh I listen to my my daughter on who to vote for locally cuz she knows a lot more about that than I do and uh and I'll I'll listen to my wife on a lot of things and I won't get into details so it it uh it is it is important if you don't live a life where you surround yourself and limit yourself to people you trust uh it won't be much fun I mean I literally have been in the position ever since I was in my 20s of being able to have people I trusted around me and I've made mistakes occasionally but and but they filter out over time you learn and uh uh when I found Charlotte for example and in all kinds of matters not just investment uh you know I knew I'd have somebody that that uh well I'll put it this way you can think about this Charlie and all the years we worked together not only never once lied to me ever but he didn't even shap things so that he told half lies or quarter lies to sort of Stack the the deck in the direction he wanted to go he was he absolutely he considered a of utmost importance that he never lied now that occasionally got him in trouble at dinner parties or something if he he said to the woman I really prefer the way you used to do your hair the way that somebody over across the room does I mean he was but in terms of having a partner I I I simply cannot think of a conversation I ever had with Charlie that in the least he misled me or shaped it his way or anything of the sort so when you get that in your life uh you know you cherish those people and you sort of forget about the rest okay okay uh this question is for a je uh it comes from Mayer baruka climate change seems to be impacting the insurance industry heavily with major players pulling out of markets like California because of wildfire and flooding risks combined with payouts increasing how does Mr Jane see this risk expanding to other regions and how has the thesis on insurance Investments changed because of it yeah climate change climate risk is certainly a factor that is become has come into focus in a very very big way more recently now the one thing that mitigates the problem for us especially in some of the reinsurance operations we are in is our contractual liabilities are limited to a year in most cases so as a result of which at the end of a year we get the opportunity to reprise including the decision to get out of the business all together if we don't like the pricing in the business but the fact that we are making bets that tie us down to one year at a time certainly makes it possible for us to stay in the business longer term than we might have otherwise because of climate change clearly prices need to go up it is difficult to be very scientific about how much the prices need to go up they need to go up a lot and we keep increasing prices and hope we stay above the ahead of the curve but that doesn't happen in noral cases The Regulators don't make it any easier by tying our feet to the ground and making it difficult for us to withdraw from certain territories or to make uh dramatic changes in in the pricing of certain products uh as a result of which a number of insurance carriers including ourselves have decided to not write business in certain States I think The Regulators are getting a little more realistic about the and they waking up to the fact that the that the insurance carriers need to make some kind of a return a decent return for us to keep deploying our Capital it's a constant battle back and forth It's been against the capital providers these last few years is but I think we're coming back into balance if you look at the results that have been recently announced by the insurance carriers everyone's now making record profits OB obviously that will not last but certainly for the next several months I think the insurance industry in spite of climate change in spite of increased risk of fires and flooding it's going to be an okay place to be in yeah climate climate change increases risks and you know it it in the end it's it makes our business bigger over time is but not if we if we misprice them we'll also go broke but uh but we do it one year at a time overwhelmingly and uh and I would say this I would I would rather have a Jeet assessing this than any thousand under writers or or Insurance managers in the world I mean it the the factors aren't you know well we'll take Atlantic hurricanes that which would be our probably our biggest risk you know the there's no question that you can measure the temper temperature of the water in the Atlantic and and uh you know what more water does the Hurricanes but you don't know what necessarily whether that's good or bad because it may cause them to turn fast you know it may it may change the path as well as the intensity and frequency of of of of losses uh but we'll we'll write it one year at a time and we'll have Vegeta underwriting it and you know we don't have to tell you what's going to happen 5 years from now or 10 years from now and uh uh people who don't have sort of analytical Insurance Minds that comment on this subject really don't expand our knowledge it's it it's uh we get a lot of letters from people that I'm sure have good IQs but they they don't really know they they don't understand the insurance business and uh and they're not wrong I don't think in my mind about climate change but uh if there was no risk there'd be no insurance business and and we're in the business of evaluating it and we do it one year at a time and there's some exceptions where you can't do it where your your uh decisions extend for a long time in the future and uh we try to avoid those but again uh you don't need a thousand people analyzing water currents and you you need you need one very very very smart guy and we've got him okay yeah the the only thing I'd add is that climate change much like inflation Done Right can be a friend of the risk Bearer and it has been for us if you look at Geico it had 175,000 policies roughly in 1950 and it was getting roughly 40 bucks a car so that was 7 Mill of of volume and you know now we have uh we're getting over $2,000 well all the advances in technology and everything like that if if we had been wetted to some formula what we did with $40 we'd have had a terrible business but but in effect by making the cars much safer they've also made them much more expensive to repair and a whole bunch of things have happened including inflation so now we have a $40 billion Bill business from something that was 7 million uh back when I uh called on it so if if we'd operated in a non-inflationary world Geo would not be a a $40 billion company okay we're we're now finally coordinated to we station three I I believe hello hi everyone I were I'm Liam I'm 27 from Newark Ontario Canada I got invest birkshire thanks to my dad who brought me down to this meeting I'm so excited to be here most 27 year-olds had Idols who are rappers but instead my Idols are Warren Charlie who will miss forever and also your cousin Jimmy who unfortunately had to go this year too it's been a tough year as a Canadian similar with Greg I always wonder about our Canadian economy and what you think about the Canadian economy we got some beat down Bank stocks right now and I don't know what your opinions on are on these and I also wonder at in their '90s if the rumors are true and you're still able to eat McDonald's I like Fast Moon myself but I always wonder at 93 he's still able to eat those and enjoy the Coca-Cola thanks Warren okay well we've got a Canadian here so we'll let him answer uh first part and uh and if you if you if you watch me you'll see what I I like to eat I mean but go to it Greg okay um yeah well we're we we are fortunate to have a number of operations up in Canada um it goes across many of our operating entities and then as Warren touched on all the businesses that we have a piece of that we're invested in are are up in Canada so the presence is significant we're we're we're always looking at making incremental Investments there because it's a it's an environment we're very comfortable with Warren touched on understanding the US environment business environment and and I would put Canada equally in that uh bucket that we understand it and would be comfortable and I I would say the economy moves very closely to the to the US so the result we're seeing out of our various businesses that report both the US and Canadian operations aren't aren't drastically different um and and there's a few that we're on the energy side for example we make very substantial Investments up there in in Alberta but again it's very consistent with how that economy is growing and I would see it being very consistent with what we see here Warren anything to yeah no we we we in canadi when it obviously there aren't as many big companies up there as there are in the United States but but when we get a I got one from Canada just the other day that I sent over to Greg too that that when when we see anything that's suggesting an idea that's of a size would interest here and meets other requirements uh we don't have any hesitancy about uh putting big money in in in in in Canada that uh and there are things we actually can do fairly well that uh uh our candidate could you know benefit from from berkshire's participation we did it some years ago not that many years ago but but uh there was a financial institution up there and and uh uh they had a problem and and theyd had as I remember 30 plus you know various other people that were kicking it around and meanwhile the place was getting close to the edge for not a fundamental problem and uh Ted wler from our office went up there I heard about it on a Monday or something and Ted wler went up there and we offered a solution in a couple of days to something that that was getting close to the brings so it it we do not feel uncomfortable in any way shape or form uh putting our money into Canada in fact we're actually uh we're actually looking at one thing now uh and but you know they they still have to meet our standards on terms of what we get for our money but they but they don't have a they don't have a mental we don't have any mental blocks about that country and of course there's a lot of countries we don't understand at all so so Canada it it's it's terrific when you've got um a major economy not the size of the US but a major economy that that you absolutely you you feel confident about operating there okay mecky Warren you just uh said that you'd rather have a g running risk assessment at the insurance operations than any other thousand insurance adjusters in the world so I'd like to follow up with a question that came in from Mark Blackley in Tulsa Oklahoma he said Warren for years you have spoken about the incredible impact a Jeet has had on Burkshire you've often joked if you and a Jeet are in a sinking boat and we can only save one of you swim for swim to a g while we often discuss plans for the next CEO of Berkshire little is mentioned on who will one day replace a g how should we think about the future of the birkshire insurance operations given how challenging it may be to find another AIT and uh like to hear ait's thought on thoughts on this as well well I would say we won't find another AET but fortunately he's a good bit younger than I am so I hope you have to worry a little bit about me first before start working by the je uh uh it we won't find another Jeep but we have an operation that he has created and that at least part of it is there certain parts of it that are almost impossible for competitors to imitate and and if I was in their shoes I wouldn't I wouldn't try and imitate them uh and so we've institutionalized some of our advantages but a jet is well he all his presence allowed us to do it uh and he did it uh but now we've we've created a structure that uh didn't exist when he came in 1986 nothing close to it existed with us or with anybody else and uh insurance is the most important business at birkshire it it uh uh marketable Securities are important but uh they're not in the class exactly as as our insurance business uh uh and uh a g we we won't have the same business if a g isn't running it but we'll have a very good business and again that thanks to a g you know I'd been in the business when he came in 1986 you know I'd first went to Geico in 1950 we first bought National Indemnity in 1957 and it was something that we' made quite a b bit of money in the stocks of of insurance companies but uh uh we needed we needed an je unfortunately he came into the office on a Saturday and he was tired of working at something where he really didn't it just in challenges his intellect and uh I said well we got a lot of challenges so you know you know nobody's perfect so so you've never seen an insurance policy own an insurance stock but here are the keys and that's worked out very well well thank you very much Warren than thank you very much everyone but the fact of the matter is nobody is irreplaceable and we have Tim Cook here in the audience I believe who has proved that and yeah has set an example for a lot of people who follow that's a great observation I now having said that I will also add that our board is conscious of the succession issue not only at Warren's level but also at my level and every year they have me sitting in front of them answering questions and having me share my ideas with them in terms of what would happen to the operations if I get hit by a truck uh we go through the various operations we have I review with them a short list of people I think ought to be candidates for replacing me and in addition to that I go a step further and identify particular individual as the person I would hand over the keys to if something were to happen to me obviously that could subject to change but we take this issue fairly seriously and I think at the end of the day as as Tim Cook has proved to us it'll be the biggest nonissue of The Day the Earth will keep still keep revolving around the axis okay yeah we know what we we what we know what we will will do we know it's a good answer but we know it isn't it isn't we won't have another AG uh station five hi my name is and Andrew ncas and I'm wondering if you had one more day with Charlie what would you do with him [Applause] well it's kind of interesting because in effect I did have one more day I mean it wasn't a full day or anything but uh but he uh uh we we always uh lived uh in a way where we were happy with what we were doing every day I mean Charlie Charlie liked learning he liked as I mentioned in the movie he liked a wide variety of things so he was much broader than I was but I didn't have any great desire to be as broad as he was and he didn't have any great desire to be as as narrow as but we had a lot of fun doing anything and um you know we played golf together we played tennis together we we did everything together and and uh and this you may find kind of interesting we we had as much fun perhaps even more to some extent with things that failed because then we really had to work and work our way out of them and and in a sense there's more there's more fun having having somebody that's uh your partner in in digging your way out of a fo Foxhole when there is just sitting there and and watching an idea that you got 10 years ago just continually produce more and more profit so it it it wasn't uh you know he really he really fooled me though on he went to to 99.9 years I mean it if You' pick two guys you know he never he he publicly said he never did it a day of exercise except where it was required when he was in the Army he never did a day of voluntary exercise he never thought about what he ate uh you know it it it uh uh you know we started every day and Charlie had he was interested in more things than I was but uh we never had any doubts about the other person period and uh uh so if I had another day with them we'd probably done the same thing we were doing the earlier days but we and we wouldn't have wanted to know that we only had one day that there's a great advantage in in uh not knowing where you're going to what what day you're going to die that uh uh and Charlie always said you know that uh just me where I'm going to die so I'll never go there well uh uh it uh the truth is you know he went everywhere with his mind and uh and therefore he was not only interested in the world at 99 but the world was interested in him it's it's remarkable uh you know they he he I would I I told him toward in the last few years I never seen anybody that was peing you know in 99 and and and and uh where the world wanted to come and see him I mean they actually wanted to go out to 351 North June Street and whether it was what well I could name a whole bunch of names but just I'll start with Elon musker but good on the list and they all wanted to meet Charlie and Charlie was happy to talk with them and I the only the only uh uh person I could think of otherwise was the dolly Lama I don't know that they had a lot else in common but but uh it was he he he lived his life the way he wanted to and uh he got to say what he wanted to say he like I loved having a Podium and and again I can't remember any time that he was mad at me or I was mad at him it just didn't happen uh uh and calling him was fun back when longdistance rates were and and the and we didn't talk as often as the years in recent years is we used to be on daily uh for long periods and and we did keep learning and we like learning together but uh uh you know when it we tended to be a little smarter because when as the years went by cuz we had mistakes and we had other things that where we learned something and and the fact that he and I were on the same wavelength in that respect meant that uh that the world was still a very interesting place to us when he got to be 99 and I got to be 93 so I don't have a perfect answer for you there but I can tell you the ingredients that would going to uh uh sometimes people would say to me or at one of these meetings you know if you could only have lunch with one person that uh lived over the last 2,000 or so years you know who would you want to have it with Charlie says I've already met all of them you know because he he he read all the books I mean he he he and he eliminated all the trouble of going to restaurants to meet him or anything like that he just went through a book and he met Ben Frankin and he he really uh he was remarkable he but uh he said he really had no one else to meet because he he'd read all their stuff and he liked Ben Franklin's stuff better than he liked mine but but uh but with Ben Franklin he just had to read about it didn't have to they didn't have to go have lunch with them or anything of the sort uh but it's an interesting question what you should probably ask yourself is that who do you feel that uh you'd want to start spending the last day of your life with and uh and then figure out a way to start meeting him or tomorrow and uh and meet them as often as you can that's why wait a little the last day at uh and don't bother with the others okay Becky uh this question comes from Carol deand and Switzerland uh in Europe and this is for both Mr Buffett and Mr Jane as political instability in the world is growing with a rise in the number of armed conflicts and trade tension there is also increasing risk of cyber attacks what are your views on cyber security Insurance asking this question in general for retail small businesses and large companies including critical key infrastructure such as power plants Harbors airports nuclear plants Etc do you see potential for profit making in cyber security insurance is and what are the key challenges uh okay let me start cyber secure cyber insurance is become a very fashionable product these days uh over these last few years it is at least a $10 billion market right now globally and profitability is also being fairly High I think profitability is at least 20% of the total premium uh has ended up as profit in in the pockets of the insurance be bearers now having said that we at Burkshire tend to be very very careful when it comes to taking on Cyber Insurance liabilities um for the part of actually for two reasons one is it's very difficult to know what is the Quantum of losses that can be subject to a sing Single occurrence and the aggreg ation potential of cyber losses especially if some Cloud operation comes to a standstill you know that aggregation potential can be huge and not being able to have a worst case gap on it is what scares us secondly it's also very difficult to have some sense of what the what we call loss cost of the cost of good sold could potentially be it's not just for a single loss but for losses across over time they have been fairly well contained out of 100 cents of the dollar of the premium losses over the last four or five years I think have not been beyond 40 cents on the dollar leaving a decent profit margin but having said that there's not enough data to be able to hang your hat on and say what your true loss cost is so in our insurance operations I have told the people running the operations is I've discouraged them from writing cyber insurance to the extent they need to write it so as to satisfy certain client needs I have told them no matter how much you charge you should tell yourself that each time you write a cyber insurance policy you're losing money we can argue about how much money you're losing but the mindset should be you're not making money on it you're losing money and then we should go from there so it is it's projected to be a huge business my guess is at some point it might become a huge business but it might be associated with huge losses and our is to sort of stay away from it right now until we can have access to some meaningful data and hang a hat on data well you've just made you've just heard why aeta is invaluable because that uh uh when you insure something you really want to think of what how much can you lose and the question I remember the first time it was happened I think in the 1968 when there were the riots in various cities because I think Bob I think it was the Bobby Kennedy death that set it off for the Martin Luther King death I'm not sure which one but in any event when you write a policy you have a limit in that policy but the question is is what is one event so if if uh uh if somebody is assassinated in some town and that causes losses of thousands of businesses all over the country if you've written all those thousands of policies you have one event or do you have a thousand events and there's no place where that kind of a dilemma enters into more than cyber because if you think about it if uh you know let's say you're writing $10 million of limit per per risk and decide that's fine and you're if you lose 10 million you know for some event you can take it but the problem is if that one event turns out to affect a thousand policies and somehow they're all linked together in some way uh and the course decide that way uh you've written something that in no way we're getting the proper price for and and could break the company and I will tell you that most people want to be in anything that's fashionable when they write insurance and cyber's an easy issue you can write a lot of it and uh the agents like it you know they're getting the commission on every policy they write and you've got to have somebody in charge of things that understands that you may get an aggregation of risk that you never dreamt of and may be worse than some earthquake happening someplace just because you have a whole bunch of policies with a million dollar limit and I would say that uh human nature is such that that most insurance companies will get very excited and their agents will get very excited and it's very fashionable and it's kind of interesting and uh as char would say it may be R poison okay well that's cheerful here we'll go to station six good morning this question is for waren buffet and great able my name is Maria PES I am a retire from Las Vegas Nevada I am here today as a member of chispa Nevada a group developed Latin leaders for the environment of justices I am Al I am almost here representing Mary Latin families in Nevada who are struggling to pay their utility bills and one access to Affordable clean electricity I want to add today why is NB energy with which is owned by the burshire haway building new gas plants instead of investing in solar energy with Nevada one and this sunniest state in the country can I expect to see future leadership take dangerous investments in the fossils l more seriously thank you and thank you Maria uh Greg you want sure um thank you so as we touched on with Envy energy even earlier there's um a lot going on there and I when I think of uh there's no question solar is a a great opportunity for Envy energy and we'll continue to um utilize that as a resource and continue to invest in it uh in that utility and and the other utility we have in Nevada we're also in a point where when you think of a transition that's going on within the energy sector we are transitioning from carbon resources to renewable resources as was noted but it it it will not occur overnight that transition will take many years and as we use be it renewable res resources such as solar or wind they are in intermittent and we do try to combine it with batteries but it do at this point in time we cannot transition completely away from the carbon resources so if I think of Nevada in the in the next two years our last two coal units are well actually in the next year our last two coal units will retire but we are replacing them with uh a new gas unit which is is truly needed to make sure that system remains uh reliable and available to our to our customers and that's and that's done in conjunction with our with the state um representatives and our regulator agencies to make sure we can serve those customers every day and every minute we have great examples in Iowa where at times 100% of our energy comes from wind and we're and we're thrilled with that that and I believe we hit that for example on Earth Day uh every we had enough wind that we could meet the demand of that state but the next day if the wind's not blowing we need our gas resources our gas plants to to fill that Gap and really that's the situation we still have in in Nevada so we'll continue the transition to renewable resources be It Solar in Nevada and wind and other areas combined with battery but for the foreseeable future we do see gas being a very important resource to help maintain reliability and meet meet our customer customer needs and and to meet it in an affordable way is also an important uh piece of that so thank you for your comments all right yeah we in in a we we've got the capital to do whatever makes the most sense in a place like Nevada and the Nebraska the Nevada I don't know each each state calls their ruling commission something different but they probably call the Public Service Commission or something like and they they're making the decision as to what they think can and should be done uh in terms of getting from where a vastly complicated utility business moves towards something different without messing things up in the meantime and and uh you know having the lights go off and they they I think they would probably agree with you very much Maria that they what they where they want to get but they can't they can't do it tomorrow you know you know because the inter intermittent problems and uh their job is to make sure the lights stay on and their job is also to move uh toward better sources um but solar will never be the only source of uh of electricity because it uh uh well Greg may know more about this but I'm barring some real breakthroughs and storage and that sort of thing right yeah yeah generally a battery right now to do it in a economical way is is a 4-Hour battery and and when you think of the time without um the the sun being available that's a that's a b that's a challenge now there there's a lot of technology advancements and that's stretching out and you throw dollars at a lot of things you can accomplish things but the reality is that's there's a there's a careful balance of of the reliability and also balancing as you as it was noted the rates do matter and and how much customers are paying so delicate balance of both delivering reliability but doing it in an affordable way yeah my friend Bill Gates he's working on shortening up that or lengthening the time the battery works on and so you got some very smart people working out but it isn't something that you actually do overnight and and uh I can understand why people want it that overnight but it it is going to take a lot of money it's going to take a lot of good ideas and smart people like Bill and Greg not me I don't I don't understand why the damnn lights go on when I even turn the switch but those those Fells really do know and there's plenty of them working on it and we got plenty of money to implement it but there are there are certain things that uh that just take a certain amount of uh time my daughter hates it when I use this example but uh it's really true that you can't create a baby uh in one month by getting nine women pregnant I mean that you know you may want you may want a baby but so there are certain laws of nature that you have to work with Okay Becky uh this question comes from Rich McClosky in dun Eden Florida he says Warren and a would you let us know what you think about the car and property insurance situation in Florida as a resident both seem out of control control since the Florida Market seems to be so mismanaged is this an opportunity for Berkshire yeah the Florida Market both for auto insurance and for homeowners insurance has had a few tough years uh the two problems we face in Florida and all the risk bearers face in Florida one is the lawyers and the amount of corruption that takes place in the Florida Market is keep skyrocketing making it difficult for us to price price the product and make a profit and secondly the amount of activity in terms of storms both the frequency and the severity is also so severe that the losses in Florida tend to make it very difficult for a risk Bearer to make money having said that we've had a we' fortunately had a very good run at Florida last year we increased our exposure in Florida as we talked about last year and fortunately nothing bad happened so a lot of our premiums that were in the Top Line flew straight to the bottom line Florida is a large Market Florida is a market that's subsidized by the rest of the country I don't think those that's going to stand the test of time the Florida Market the legislators are trying to improve it they have passed law that is bringing down the amount of fraud that takes place in Florida and I hope Florida will be a fairly buoyant Insurance Market because at the end of the day they do believe in the free market more than some of the other states that have insurance crisis like California and New York so yes Florida has a problem prices will go up fairly substantially but at the end of the day I think we'll achieve a degree of balance so that the risk bearers can make a decent profit and will be deploying Capital out there okay station seven please hi Warren um my name is Christine h Garcia and I'm from aora Hills California thank you for being an excellent teacher and imparting your wisdom to us throughout the years what advice would you like to share today that you believe everyone needs to hear well too bad you didn't that he added that what what the rest of us would like to hear the uh no they oh I would say that if if I had one piece of advice I would try to well and you're lucky you live in this country because it just to start with because you've got opportunities here that wouldn't exist in much of the world uh but I would like I I would like the really sort of use Charlie's advice of the thinking how you like your obituary to read and then uh uh start selecting the educational pass the Social pass you know whatever May that your P particular situation in terms of associating and perhaps uh certainly in my day I would have been marrying the person that would best help you do that well Charlie would say you are offering some similar benefit to the partner and uh uh you know the the opportunity in this country is you know just basically Limitless that uh when you think of going back not that many centuries you know if you were going to be a Shepherd or something like that you 100 years from now you're you're you know your your grandson was a grand daughter was going to be a Shepherd I mean nothing nothing really happened and what has happened in the last 200 years with the combination of the Industrial Revolution and but whether it's science or education or health or you you name it we are so lucky to be born uh when we were the people in this room and and many of us we're lucky enough to be born in United States as well uh that uh you know you you've had the you're entering the best world that's ever existed and you want to find the people to share it with and the activities to participate in in uh that fit you and if you get lucky uh like Charlie and I did you find things that interest you young but if you don't find them right away you keep looking and uh uh I always tell students that take the job that you I mean find the job that you want would like to have if you didn't need a job and sometimes you could find that very early and sometimes sometimes you go through various experiences but don't forget what you're trying actually are trying to do and there's no place to do it like this country and find the person that you like to share your life with uh in many cases and and and you know sometimes you get lucky and do that early and uh and sometimes you make mistakes and uh but uh I would I would try to in a very very general way I would try to figure out how you'd want to look back on your life and think about yourself and and uh and start the day to go on the path that leads to to that goal and expect expect some some uh difficulties along the way but if you're if you're thinking that way you you're more likely to get there Becky uh this question comes from as Axel mayor seek in hurg Germany um what has changed for berkshire's operating CEOs since Greg AEL and AET Jane became vice chairman for example can and do the operating CEOs still reach out to Warren Buffett directly well let's uh might the answer might surprise you but they they overwhelmingly uh the operating Executives uh well they they prefer to talk to to Gregor to to a Jeep and uh that didn't that's understandable because uh I don't really do much and I don't operate at the same level of efficiency that I would have 30 years ago or 40 years ago I don't know the managers as well as I would have when we were smaller and when I could get more accomplished in the day than I can now and you've got when You' got somebody like Greg and a Jeet uh you know why subtle for me I basically so it's it's it's worked out extremely well uh uh and uh I I almost can't imagine anything working better because uh Greg in the year accomplishes I mean he sees more of them understands more about their problems you know can give them suggestions he's got incredible amounts of energy and and uh no body has more wisdom than the Jeep about insurance and uh they've got access in the insurance to now they had it before we stuck some of those titles on in Insurance whereas with Greg he much expanded things when when when he became uh the vice chairman in charge of of really everything except insurance so he is if you told our managers uh that fall under his jurisdiction which would be a lot of them uh uh they they would much preferred unless like a few they weren't paying as much attention to their business and I wouldn't do anything about it but but Greg would and uh and they still like it when he does it he can deliver he can he can deliver news very well to to people who uh you know there's some there'll be some people if you have if you have 20 children and you're very rich you'll have some that will be go-getters anyway and you'll have some that that uh won't and uh we are a very very rich company and uh we don't uh we we haven't had a history of being very tough on on people that uh coasted and we've had some that would do that and Greg will do something about it and Charlie and I wouldn't have uh not because we didn't know it should be done but because we were doing so well ourselves and everything it just wasn't it we didn't we wouldn't make the effort we didn't want to change our lives that way plus we slowed down in various ways physically and everything so so I would I would uh I would say that uh the number of calls I get for managers is is essentially awfully close to zero and Greg is handling those you know I don't I don't know quite how he does it but but uh but uh we've got the right person I can tell you that and with the G he he he does less physical moving and and the insurance people are more used to working with the Jeep obviously over the years so uh I wouldn't say that changing the title would be changed as much there because he was in charge of insurance anyway and uh so that's uh you know you can you can go to a business school and and they can give you way better answers um I've just given you but but that's the way we do it at Berkshire she raised his hand yeah uh if I can add a comment from my perspective the transition has worked out very very well but I think the credit really goes to how Warren has handled the situation and what I mean by that is after the transation was announced and a lot of the operating managers used to be they were used to calling Warren directly on some issue or the other when they after the transation when they would continue to do so Warren would very skillfully in his in his manner handle them such that he would not answer what they were looking for but at the same time made them feel good and told them that he sort of enjoyed hearing from them and talking to them so as a result of which you know the transation took place people got the message they got the message and were very responsive to it and it's a non-issue as far as today's concern I'd probably add yeah a the only thing I would add is we do have an exceptional set of managers across both the um uh non-insurance and insurance and yes waren made it incredibly easy but so did they it it was a very easy transition because they cared deeply about Burkshire they care deeply about the culture and they very much wanted it to be a a success and we're fortunate to have uh those managers in insurance and non-insurance so thank you yeah what what Greg is talking about is they really wanted more Direction in in some cases than than I gave them you know I mean it uh I just sat there reading the Wall Street Journal or whatever and uh uh Greg is I don't you know there one way or another there are more than 24 hours in his day you know and uh I I I just don't know how he covers the ground he does but but he knows more about the people uh he we got the same feeling in terms of judging the attractiveness of businesses and making Capital decisions and that sort of thing but but he's willing to work I mean I you know I I I uh you know and I couldn't get as much done anyway you know what I could do in in couple of hours you know may take it hours now it it it I just don't read as fast and different things said but uh it it's working very well and and uh uh this place if anything happened to me it would be working extremely well the next day I don't get any phone calls you could you can actually we can we can rig something up so we got some answering machine that people think I'm still around you know or something in terms so anyway that's that's uh much much less than you'd learn in business school but that's the way we do it at Berkshire okay station eight dear Warren Greg and Ajit thank you for having us your teachings have not only made us better investors but more importantly better people thank you for that my name is Rajiv Agarwal and I am from New Jersey I run an India Focus fund called duari India fund my question is related to India Indian economy and Indian equities have done quite well in the last 5 10 20 years it is the fifth largest economy and will be the third largest in the next few years my question is is birkshire actively looking for opportunities in the Indian Equity market and what will allow you to buy anything meaningful there thank you yeah well that's a very good question and obviously India you know it's I'm sure there are loads of opportunities in a place like India and uh the question is do we have any advantage in either insights into those businesses or contexts that will make possible some some transaction that uh might what the parties in India would particularly want us to participate uh uh I would say that that's something that a more energetic management at at at Berkshire could pursue uh because we do have the reputation now Berkshire is known not like it's known in the United States but it's known around the world and and uh you know our Japanese experience has been fascinating in that respect uh uh so there may be an unexplored or uh unattended to opportunity in that area I'm not the one to do it um but that may be something that uh uh in the future uh it might be opportunities there there there there are opportunities the question is is is does Berkshire have some kind of advantage in actually pursuing those opportunities against particularly against people that are using other people's money that that where they get paid based on asset uh on assets managed or something of sort I mean there there are plenty of people in the game who are buying and running businesses that uh uh do not really have our philosophy I mean they uh they uh uh they're going to get rich no matter what happens and and uh uh the their payment may be based on on on how much they buy rather than what they buy uh so we'll see how the next management plays the game out at at burshire and fortunately you don't have too long to wait on that generally I feel fine but but but I I uh I know a little bit about actuarials at tables and uh uh uh I just um well I would say this I I shouldn't be taking on any fouryear employment contracts like several people are doing in this world in an age where you can't be quite that sure where you're going to be in four years okay but you're de you're absolutely right about about you you have if you were energetic had some way to uh become a a buyer of a uh or a a a a a party that people particularly wanted to do business with uh Japan was great and India could be great but India and Japan AR AR the same I mean I don't adapt myself terribly well to different different cultures uh and some people are really good at it uh and almost anybody's better than I am but I stumbled into one or two but uh that could happen in the in in in in you know act two of U Berkshire out of the way Becky this is a question from Rafael doino from Spain Berkshire has grown tremendously thanks to and among other things its architect Mr Munger and you its general contractor we're all tremendously thankful to you for taking us along the way we are aware that both of you and many others have spent an enormous amount of time uring berkshire's culture provides a solid footing on which to grow the building you also currently have a very talented bench of what we may label as subcontractors in Mr Abel Mr Jane Mr Colmes and Mr West however for a long time you've had the advantage that talented subcontractors have wanted to work with a once in a generation architect and general contractor how do you envision Berkshire will overcome the loss of set Advantage when the contractor bench needs to be renewed again and what are what are potential renovation Works in this great building that may necessitate a new architect yeah well that's a great question which the Charlie and I obviously talked a lot about over time and of course we uh we will not B sure to the extent it Remains the sort of entity that it is will not need to attract people very often uh it would be absolutely crazy for anybody for our board of directors to ever pick anybody to run this business that thought you should retire at 65 uh uh it may be that they should retire the next day you know when you learn what they really like managing something or it may turn that you want to keep them around they they really start aect being affected by old age which hits different people at different times but it hits everybody eventually and so we it's very likely that if it's if the directors and it's very tough because they will be acting against conventional wisdom which which is always difficult and uh but I think we've got the group on that and they they will not have to make a decision very often if they if they pick the right uh CEO that's 99% of the job of the directors and uh if they the other 1% is is you do you have a good method to correct it if youve made a wrong decision and that's extremely hard to do uh in in our present system it's not impossible but uh uh it's just not something that happens it's too good a job to be a director to to to try and throw over somebody at particularly if you can use the money from directorships and you want to be on other boards and everything we we we do not have a perect system in in terms of boards of directors at all and it's it doesn't operate at all well I shouldn't say at all but it doesn't it it it doesn't operate as as people may think it generally operates so we will you know we' really got the problem solved for the next 20 years unless something UNT happens and something unto happens then then the directors need to find probably within our own organization uh somebody that they've got confidence in to maintain the special advantages we have uh over another 20 years period it's there's various things that are low probabilities but you still have to think about them and uh and we are in that position now now if you asked me whether if something happened to Greg today everybody says don't travel on the same plane the thing to do is not travel on the same Auto planes don't go down that often Autos crash all the time I've seen all these corporate policies on that which are kind of crazy when you think about the real risk but in any event uh we do Greg is going to have to tell the directors about what if something happened tomorrow he has to tell the directors about what should be done if anything happens to him and uh that's not an easy thing to do and uh uh I don't have uh well it it will be his decision and then the directors really the decide whether he's made the right one but he will he will make the right one uh and what you really have to hope is that you get lucky on how long managers stick around I mean you you might need three in a century and you might need six or seven uh but uh the the the answer is you need a little luck and you need some break in the mortality tables but we've we've got an entity that if you really aspire to be a certain kind of manager of a really large entity there's nothing like it in the world so uh we've got something to offer the person who we want to have you know it's a sort of like Charlie said about marrying the best person that will have you well we we have uh we've got something that the right person would want to marry you know basically in terms of birkshire uh and if we get the wrong person then the directors have to do something about it and that probably won't happen but it's always a contingency a possibility I should say Craig having been put on the spot like that didn't you don't have to name anybody now but I'm sure the crowd would love it make news think I would add uh Warren is uh and it's really how the comment started was around culture um the culture we have at Berkshire and that being our our shareholders being our partners and our managers of our business having that ownership mentality that's never going to change and that will attract the right managers uh at every level so I think as Warren said we have a very special uh company Berkshire but it's that culture that makes it special and and that's not going to change okay station nine I'm never sure where nine is hi I'm Sherman lam a Booker shareholder and I work for a family office in qualo Malaysia just really happy to see you Warren and the team and where I come from you're hero and both you and Charlie have positively transformed mine and many many other Malaysians and Southeast Asians lives not only financially but also in how we navigate our lives and relationships thank you very very very much well thank thank you thank you that that that makes us feel good question is uh what have your teams great learnings been on business Capital allocation stock baking and portfolio allocation uh throughout the co9 pandemic period over the last 5 years and waren appreciate it if you can get your views as well as uh your you representations on Ted and Todd as well as directly from Greg and Ajit to on their respective businesses thank you yeah I I don't think I want to give individual appraisals uh and but but uh what really what you're doing is uh in terms of capital allocation which is is my job I don't go out and sell insurance policies or anything of the sort uh and you represent a group of shareholders like we do represent we we are totally clear on our mission and you know it it may be that other people don't agree with them but I would say that in a great many places uh you know I I I I just don't agree with their mission and uh you know I would say that for example that any anybody that wants to return retire at 65 would be disqualified from being CEO of Berkshire then they might get just they might get retired the next day if they were the wrong person but that that there's just certain things we don't want and uh uh the we're well fixed now and that the odds are very good but far from certainty that that takes care of the next 20 years now the but you have to provide for the cont mercy and and uh uh I there's several people on the board that know what I would do on that but it's up to Greg but Greg and I go at the same time then then then you'll move into making another decision and and uh uh you know there a few people know my thoughts on that but but they the the job of the director is then to come up with the right CEO and the right CEO can't make a terrible business great Tom Murphy who was the best he was the best business manager I've ever known and Tom Murphy you know he said the real key was buying the right business and now murf brought a million other attributes to it after that but you know it Charlie you know said we we you know what was this he had a saying on that but but basically we could have brought in Tom Murphy and told him his job was to run the textile business and it would have done a little bit better but it still would have failed and and uh one of the reasons I stuck with the textile business as long as I did was that I liked Ken Chase so much and I thought he was a terrific guy and he was was a very good manager and if he'd been a jerk you know we'd have quit the textile business much faster we'd have been better off but so so the answer was for him to get in the in the TV business like murf had done and AD supported the you know murf murf figured that out early and he started with a pathetic operation which was a VHF in Aly New York competing against GE and everything and he was operating out of a home for retired nuns and he only painted the side that faded faced the street he had one car dashing around town and he called it news truck number six but from M he built an incredible company and he built it because he was the best manager I've ever met but beyond that he was in a good business and uh uh the key will be to ke will be to find another Tom Murphy and then hand him a bunch of good businesses and and he or she will know what to do with it now that's not as precise as you would get in uh in most companies but you really can't get more precise than that I mean you can have committees and management consultants and everybody but it wasn't a Management Consultant that hired Tom Murphy and and I forget whether he was doing his sales volume was couple th000 a week at first and then soon as he hit that was his goal got the 2,000 he say now my goal is 3,000 he kept doing that and he surpassed all these people like CBS and ABC that on the had the World by the tail and uh it was just a wonderful lesson in life to get just to be able to view something like that I learned an awful lot from what he said to me but I just learned by watching somebody like him operate I mean it's it's it's like watching a great golfer a great tennis player then you you ought to learn something about the kind of Swing you're trying to develop or something sort so that's that's not a great answer for you but it's it's uh so far it's worked and I think it works I'm very sure it works with Greg and it's up to people in the future when you know at uh I'm underground or wherever they put me uh to really make a decision every 20 years or something like that on average it's the right decision but correct that if it turns out to be the wrong decision that's what a board of directors is for and uh and we've got the people on the board that really understand that responsibility they take it seriously but they don't take themselves to seriously and uh so therefore they don't they don't want to they don't necessarily want to do a lot of things just to look busy uh they aren't using us as a stepping stone to get on other boards but we've got people that that uh really believe in what we're doing and uh and the ones that are going to have to make this place work and if they got lucky on Greg's mortality they they can do just what rep do go to sleep for 20 years or so and then make another decision and uh and Berkshire has every tool in the world available to be what it is now and continue to be what it is now I mean that we've gotten from from 20 million of that Worth to 5 70 billion and uh uh you know we there aren't as many things to do but we can do a few big things better than anybody else can do and there will be occasional times when we're the only one willing to act and those times we want to be sure that the US government thinks we're an asset to the situation and not a liability or a supplicant you know as the banks were will say in 2008 and9 that they were they were all tarred with the same brush but we want to be sure that the brush that determines our future it uh you know is not hard and uh and I think we're in the I don't think anybody's got a better position to do it than Berkshire Bey uh this questions from Johan Halen who writes you're sitting on 168 billion of cash which you told us today is now more than $182 billion his questions are one what is Buffett waiting for and two to why not at least deploy some of it well I think that's pretty easy to answer I I I don't think anybody sitting at this table has has any idea of how to use it effectively and therefore we don't we don't use it and we don't use it now at 5.4% but we wouldn't use it if it if it was at 1% um don't tell um the Federal Reserve that but but prefer it but the uh uh we don't we only swing at pitches we like and um uh if uh anybody tried to swing at every pitch uh or felt that because they hadn't swung at a pitch for two for the last two pitches they ought to swing of the third one or something like that that it it's just it's uh there are times and obviously but I would say this I I would not like to be running 10 billion now 10 million I think we could I think Charlie or I could earn high Returns on because I think there's there there just a few things that happen on a very very small scale but but it it it it uh if we had 10 billion uh we wouldn't I wouldn't basically see I know many more opportunities than we found now it's true that something like Japan we could have done if the company had had a 30 or 40 billion and we'd make we' have had great Returns on Equity but if I saw one of those now I'd do it for Berkshire that uh you know it isn't like I'm got a hunger strike or something like that going on uh it's just that they things aren't attractive and uh and there's well there certain ways that can change and we'll see whether they do okay station 10 Mr Buffett this is an incredible meeting that you host every year my name is Shan colie I am a real estate agent with Burk hathway Home Services in Arizona and California my mother Cindy my brother and my two sisters all sell real estate with birkshire hathway home services for many years we love being a part of the birkshire family and along with the 70,000 other agents that sell real estate for the company uh Mr Buffett Home Services of America recently settled our class action lawsuit regarding commissions for $250 Million last week uh this is uh this dollar meants about 100 million more than Keller Williams more than anywhere real estate which is Better Homes and Gardens in Coldwell Banker as a realtor with birkar hathway home services and multiple markets and a shareholder who's been coming to this meeting for 15 straight years uh that's one of the reasons I got involved with real estate is because of this meeting what are your thoughts on buying and selling a home in light of this re recent settlement and uh I maybe asked the note to Greg and AET too would you consider a birkar agent when buying your next home well I don't buy him that often some people have noted but uh I certainly would consider him but uh i' say the probability of that happening is low but and I I really appreciate uh the fact you've joined up with us but I'm going to in in terms of the uh the uh settlement I mean Craig get me informed but I I turned it over 100% to him but uh so Greg you want to talk about it sure so thank you for uh you and your family for being an agent and working for our for our company uh Berkshire outway Home Services I think there's a few questions in there one there's no question the industry will go through some transitions because of that settlement ours and the every other major player in the industry settled the National Association of Realtors settled for more than 400 million so um effectively everybody was swept up in in that uh settlement and it did set the grounds for the both home services and for the industry to move forward the there's a lot of changes that happen in or are being proposed associated with that settlement but the the one thing that I I think you hopefully would absolutely agree with that the real estate agent is still an important part of of these transactions it's the one time in our lives where we make these massive uh Investments and having that counseling guidance is is critical and that's really what our business and those other businesses uh rely on how the commission structures change and how it's negotiated which is really what the settlement was it was no longer that a buyer um uh would automatically pay a a commission agent to the to the selling agent that how now has to be negotiated that'll impact things but I think the realators uh will continue to be a very important part of that and I think Home Services in the industry will remain very relevant and then the only thing I would share with our shareholders on a broader basis is that obligation resides with home services and can be met by Home Services and that was an important condition because they were also uh pursuing Berkshire in Brookshire hathway energy and we said you can Pro pursue us separately but um that settlement will reside with home services and be an obligation of that and they decided the the ultimate settlement and and uh and we'll go forward from there so wen't any other comp well yeah I've sold two houses in the last well the last 93 a fraction years and and I've and I've and I've uh bought one uh uh that I still have but I obviously bought the other two it and uh uh I I have I have not negotiated down the commission even though uh the last one sold for 7 million or something like that people do negotiate down commissions to some extent but I can tell you I've looked at the figures and I I think the system is really worked out very well they when I when I got out of school they had you know what they called fsbo you know with with for sale by owner and uh so i' I've I've been involved to some degree in watching the whole system operate and uh and I know what our average agent makes I know you know how long they work on things sometimes that get don't materialize I it it it uh I don't think we will'll end up with a a better system and uh but you know it's up to it's up to Greg and the the people at home services we work it through here but I I I I like our Agency Group and I uh we've got a very large number as you of of BR estate agents and I've encouraged us the expansion we've done in the real estate agent uh real estate broke breach business uh you know it was just one or two operations when we bought Brookshire halfway energy and we we really built built up quite a company and and uh uh I think it's a very fundamental business you need help 90% of the people need help you know in buying them buying a a home or selling one and uh and I've watched it operate all my life and been involved with lots of people who have been in the business and uh but there was a decision in court and I told I told Greg to handle it whatever will seemed best to him and I'm quite I'm I'm perfectly happy with the way we've handled I think I'm surprised at the the decision but uh but uh it uh we get surprised in decisions in in the insurance business lots of times I mean just just think of the the various things we faced and and you know when 9/11 came along you know we never thought something like that could happen but it happened and then we didn't know what was one event or more events I mean if you if they close down the New York Stock Exchange and a bunch of Brokers well every all kinds of people lose their jobs and or or lose their income for a while is that one event or multiple events well there's all kinds of things come up in business and and we just we we we play the play the ball whereever we find it and uh and uh I was surprised by the decision was it in Missouri but uh is there yes yeah but we've gotten surprised by some other decisions and we'll keep doing sensible things as we move forward Greg do you want to yeah um no I think the only thing I would add back maybe to how the model has changed in the asked one yes we'll always I can't speak for a Jeep but we'll always use Home Services agents but uh it's interesting I have bought a home abroad because I I lived over in the United Kingdom uh in Newcastle running our uh utility over there and it is a completely different experience to buy a home outside of the US uh our agents take great responsibility for the the whole transaction in the US they put as Warren said time and capital uh at risk to ensure the transaction closes and when you do close it they make sure what you bought you actually what you thought you were purchasing you end up with and and that's not the way it is always around the world and there are more affordable models but it's the old thing you get what you pay for so I I think our real estate agents still provide incredible value within our business and and that as Warren touched on it it'll it'll survive the the the form may be a little bit different but there's no question it'll it'll it'll continue to thrive yeah we still we we still will we'll want to buy real estate brokerages at the right price and uh I hope we're bigger in the industry 10 years from now and 20 years from now than we are currently and I did sell a house for 7 million I did not negotiate the 6% down and I feel I got my money's worth than then some and I'm cheap by Nature so it is it is I'm careless about it I I just I got my money's worth and uh so let's move on to Bey uh this question is for Warren and a g it's from Jeff oyster as a Burkshire and Tesla shareholder I would like to hear your thoughts on the potential Financial effects to Geico assuming Elon Musk delivers on his fully autonomous driving goal on Tesla's most recent earnings call Elon said if you've got it scale statistically significant amount of data that shows conclusively that the autonomous car has let's say half the accident rate of a human driven car I think that's difficult to ignore ignore assuming Elon succeeds in reducing accidents by 50% versus human drivers wouldn't auto insurance rates fall to reflect the reduced underwriting risk thereby adversely impacting Geico's revenues and float and perhaps margins Too Well yeah if it if it if it if well let's just take the extreme example let's say there are only going to be three accidents in the United States next year for some crazy reason that that uh uh anything that reduces uh uh accidents is is going to reduce cost but that that's been harder to do than people have done before but obviously but if it really happens uh the figures will show it and our data will show it and the prices will come down I would there have been a lot of people talk about doing that in the past I mean General Motors used to be very big in the insurance business and and when Uber first started they they uh use some firm which now is I think a jle confirmed they're close to bankruptcy now aren't they because of taking things on at the wrong prices is that true of Y yeah yeah it it Insurance always looks easier than it is and it's so much fun because you get the money at the start you know and then you find out whether you've done something stupid later on but but in you know it's it's it's it's a very tempting business when somebody hands you money and you hand them a little piece of paper but uh really knowing whether you're I mean if if if accidents get reduced 50% it's going to be good for society and it's going to be bad for insurance company's volume but but but but you know good for society is is what we're looking for so far this you might find kind of interesting I mean the the number of people killed per 100 million passenger miles uh driven uh I think it actually was the when I was young it was like 15 but even post World War II it only felt of like seven or thereabouts and and Ralph nater probably has done more for the American Consumer than just about anybody in in history because uh that seven or six is now come down to under two and and I don't think it would have come down that way without him uh there have been some kind of fluke figures of what people did during the pandemic which are quite interesting because they they didn't drive immediately they didn't drive as many miles but they they drove more dangerously didn't they is that right a y yeah so the point I want to make in terms of Tesla and the fact that they feel that because of their technology the number of accidents do come down and that is certainly Pro provable but I think what needs to be factored in as well is the the repair cost of each one of these accidents has skyrocketed so if you multiply the number of accidents times the cost of each accident I'm not sure uh that total number has come down as much as Tesla would like us to believe Tesla has been toying with the idea of writing Insurance directly or indirectly and so far it hasn't really sort of been much of a success time will tell but I think uh you know automation just shifts a lot of the expense from the operator to the equipment provider okay we're getting close to noon when we're going to break for lunch I just want to tell everybody that I uh would appreciate it very much if they will get in their seats and be ready at at 1:00 when we reconvene because we will have another very short little movie and we'll just have a a little explanation of something that I think will be of interest certainly of interest to me but it uh uh so I would like to we will break promptly at 12: and I would like everybody to uh uh really make an attempt to be in their seat and quiet at 1:00 and if you can't do that if you'll wait a few minutes and watch in the halls and all that but we will we do not want to be seting people and have people Milling here at 1:00 and just like a play in New York or something we'll it'll take a few minutes and only a few minutes to cover what we're going to it at uh at 1:00 but uh we don't want to be uh seting people during that period but now now let's uh we'll go on till 12:00 and then have a break until 1:00 and uh we will go to station 11 my name is Humphrey Lou and I am from Charlottesville Virginia I asked the question last year and wish to pose it again it can be considered a followup there is something to be said for traditions it is the same question but it is a changing and different world we are in looking at Global Trends it increasingly does seem that zero emission Vehicles may have finally reached the cusp of massive adoption do you see any opportunities in this space either in specific vehicle manufacturers or in related Technologies as an addendum I will note that Berkshire has very relevant interests in energy Pilot Flying J and byd thank you yeah well we will I hope you're right and uh massive adoption is has been sort of a moving Target so far but I hope we get there but Berkshire would not be I don't think that we bring any special talent to that field uh you've got to be a call manufacturers and uh uh I would certainly not know how to pick the winners in an industry like that but I'll be delighted if there there are some winners uh but don't count on us for seeing who the winners will be and don't count on us for predicting when something will happen uh it obviously has been a moving Target so far and and uh it is an incredible problem that Society faces and and uh it it may be that uh that it may be that uh governments are not very good at solving it for a while it's it's uh uh all of climate change is it's got a terrible problem just in the fact that you know in affect the the United States particularly has been the one that's caused the problem the most and then we're asking poor societies to say well you've got to change the way you live because we lived the way we did and uh uh you know that that really hasn't been settled yet it uh uh you know it it it's a fascinating problem to me but I don't have anything to add to how you really slice through the world when I was born in 1930 there were just essentially two billion people in the world uh population statistic now there's 8 billion now if you'd asked anybody in 1930 if you take the 50 smartest people in the world and you said what's the op Optimum population uh for the world when you're 93 years old they would have not said 8 billion there wouldn't be anybody been close to it but we did it now we're reaping some of the consequences of having having done that and uh we got the benefits in the United States I'm exaggerating here to some extent but the developed World basically got it and then we're telling a whole bunch of other people that we want them to change the way they live live because of the way they live we we lived uh way they lived so we will see what happens with it but uh that's that's a problem that that is the very very very hard to sell that solve uh among a couple hundred countries and I really don't have anything to be to be uh uh to contribute on it and now I've got instructions from the thing there the the the monitor in front of me I would like to introduce one person here uh that uh uh has you you all know because she's been her so many times but um uh my friend Carol Lumis who is now well she's going to be 95 on June June 25th uh you can send president care of our office uh and Carol has edited the mercher annual report since since 1977 I there we are [Applause] and and there's there are two points I'd like to mention every year I give Carol a uh little um item for a bracelet that is a replica of the front page of the report that year and they're different colors and all of that sort of thing and so she now has what since 1977 what 47 of them and she I think she's put 10 on each one but uh I I I've always wondered you know if she'd put them all on one one arm with one arm would now be four or five Ines longer than the other and but I'm sure she's she foresaw that but I want to reveal one other I want to reveal I well I want to ask one more question uh while Carol was here because uh I'm sure almost everybody in this audience grew up like I did uh knowing that tiops lifetime batting average was 367 I mean he's the leader among everyone and uh it may be that that record is never broken and taob 367 Immortal but uh Carol uh has a distinction that probably most of you don't know but uh she dated Tab and and Carol uh was was officed at uh 6th Avenue and uh in 50th Street in the time life building and NBC was right across the street Street in in uh Rockefeller Center and the quiz shows became the head of TV and Carol being the kind of person she is walked across the street at lunchtime and went on the qu show of the late 1950s and they gave her the indust or they gave her the question regarding baseball and Carol answered them all correctly of course she was encyclopedic on all kinds of things but so she knew all the answers and she proceeded that she was single at the time and she proceeded back to her office at fortune and at some point she got a phone call from sounded like a fairly young man in Georgia and he said my uncle this Tai cob and he would like to take you to lunch at 21 and so Carol went to lunch with taob at 21 and and I think he subsequently had one more lunch and then she decided to call it off uh but those of you who follow baseball may have noticed that in the 1990s they found that the statistics had been faulty when T cob played and that he actually only batted 366 uh that there were a couple of B bats they didn't count so the real question I want to know with from Carol and I think she should maybe tell us is that would she have dated ta cob if she not I mean I I know she wouldn't have I know she wouldn't have dated taob if his batting average had been 300 or something like that but where was the cut off point at which she would have told Tai cob to stay in Atlanta and forget about coming up to New York and if Carol would if anybody has a microphone Carol would care to express herself on on that question it's the unanswered question I've had in all inquiring minds have had and uh uh only she knows the answer and she's with her daughter she married a wonderful guy John Lewis and Barbara's Barbara's wither I'm I'm sure Barbara's been always wanting to ask this question but I've it it's it's kind of tough when you're in the family but I am I'm sort of an noxious guy I will do it in front of a lot of people Carol zero or or we can have Barbara's guest either one was she she she would have been happy to go either way right you would have gone thank you Carol Carol Carol is the best business writer she comes up the town of Cole Camp Missouri you know I don't know about say around a thousand probably she never took an accounting course and she ended up becoming the best business writer in the United States and uh uh we you know she didn't want to be an editor actually I mean she could have done other things at Fortune but she just plain liked writing business stories and like I say that uh nobody came close to her and she started from scratch uh but uh in 1977 I asked her to edit my report and she turned out to be just as th an editor she was a writer and it uh all the way through this year including this year Carol has edited the Berkshire report and uh to the exent anybody enjoys reading them let's give a hand to Carol okay and I've been told to show a video right before you go to lunch because it's only 30 some seconds and then we'll talk a little bit about more about it when we come so if we'll uh dim the lights we will we will have we showing what a birer shareholder did uh uh when she sold us a billion dollars worth of stock the other day and you'll beet somebody that I is the op is I know she is the Prototype she may have more zeros but she's the Prototype of a good many burshire high the way Sher it'll be the first thing we talk about when we come back but some of you may have noticed whenever it was few weeks back when Ruth goisman gave $1 billion to Albert Einstein to take care of all the and Ruth doesn't like a lot of attention drawn to herself but here's how they felt at Albert Einstein when they announced that Ruth Ruth goddman had just made a decision to take care of of all the all of the costs of Education at Albert Einstein and it's going to be in perpetuity so let's just show the film I'm happy to share with you that starting in August this year the Albert Einstein College of Medicine will be tuition free [Applause] and that's why Charlie and I have had such fun running Burger she transferred a billion dollars to other people she Happ to do with Berkshire stock and uh and you know they offered the name rename the school after and everything like that but she said howbert Einstein that's that's a pretty good name to start with so you there's no ego involved in it know nothing she just decided that that she'd there have 100 plus closer to 150 eventually of students be able to start out debt-free and and uh proceed in life and she did it happily and she did it without somebody asking you know name it you know put my name on four all four sides of neon lights and I Salu her so let's all have lunch and we'll come back and talk a little bit more about that thanks so please take your seats we're going to finish at three so the sooner we start the soon more chance we'll have to talk about various questions you may have I just just like to follow on however with that uh film we showed just before we left for lunch because uh it says something about Berkshire uh there are you know all kinds of public companies and Wealthy public companies and uh throughout America and there are certainly cases where in one family uh somebody has made a very large amount of money and is devoting it to philanthropy or much of it the philanthropy such as the Walton family would be the number one thing in in in in uh uh in Walmart and certainly Bill did the same thing at Bill Gates did the same thing at Microsoft but what is unusual about Burkshire is that a very significant number of Brookshire shareholders located all over the United States not just in Oma but the number of different bir shareh holders who have contributed a hundred million dollar or more to their local charities usually with people not knowing about it uh I think is many multiples of any other public company in in the country it's not not M more multiples than than you know Bill's put a whole lot into philanthropy and uh and I don't I don't know the details of the family but but clearly there's a huge sum of money that that uh the Walmart family uh I'm sure has done all kinds of things philanthropic and we'll continue to do it but I don't think you'll find any company where a group of shareholders who aren't related to each other so many of them have done something along the lines of what Ruth did a few weeks ago just to exchange a little piece of paper that they've held for five decades and they've lived well themselves they haven't deny their family anything uh but they don't feel that they have to create a dynasty or anything and they give it back to society and a great many do it of an anonymously they do it in many states to some extent we see a little some concentration of it in Nebraska because uh generally uh when you when you're giving away a lot of money they they call it in the philanthropic World they call it absorption capacity and Truth this is very it's very hard to give away a billion dollars to $10 at a time to people who are needy or something of the sort and so large institutions have this absorption capacity which tend to be universities or colleges or that sort of thing and some philanthropies are much more imaginative than others but the one thing I've never well most of them want to do it anonymously so I can't tell there's specific stories but I have to say one thing that was astounding is that that the same day we bought a billion dollars worth of Berkshire class A stock from Ruth so that and I guess we were actually buying it from the the school at that point because you just given them the and then so the transaction was them was with them but Mark Bard in our office bought a billion dollars from them but he also bought $500 million worth of stock from somebody else that nobody will ever have heard of and in a different state and and I won't elaborate beyond that but we have had a very significant number of people and there's more to come uh and obviously they had to be people that came in early or their parents did or their grandparents did but they've all lived good lives they haven't denied themselves anything I mean you know they have second homes and they but they they generally uh in fact I would say the almost universally they people knew them in the community everything but they they've uh they've used what they accomp what they saved they denied themselves consumption themselves that's what savings are is is consumption deferred uh and uh they've uh they've given uh they financed everything all over the country and usually they like to do it anonymously I I outed my sister when I wrote about her in the annual report but but uh uh Bird's here today and uh uh I told her she should wear a t-shirt or something said no solicitors allowed or something that but they uh but they just do it and uh it's really a uh both Charlie and I felt it's really uh it's really fun to work for a group of people like that rather than for index funds or for for uh hedge funds or whatever it may be I mean that the you're just seeing what people actually it sort of rest restores your uh your faith in humanity that people defer their own consumption within a family for decades and decades and then they could do something like and they will uh I think it may end up being 150 people to pursue different lives and tal the people and diverse people uh to become a dream of being a a doctor and uh and not have to incur incredible death to do it or whatever may be the case there's a million different examples and I want you to know that uh that uh you're very you're very uh well you're a unique actually group of of shareholders among public companies as far as I know in terms of the way you've deferred your own consumption while living fine to help other people and and it you know it takes a lot of years but it can really amount to something very substantial and what Ruth did was uh you know at roughly my age she looked at a little piece of paper which actually was a claim check on the output of others in the future and she said instead of the output being uh for her that the output would be for a continuing stream of people for decades of decades and decades to come that we're having a different life in the pursuit of being becoming doctors than than they otherwise would have and and Berkshire has been of course her husband Sandy contributed substantially to berkshire's berkshire's record uh Sandy was a wonderful partner to have so he it was both input by him and and then there was deferred consumption by his family and then there was ultimately this final gift to Albert Einstein and like I said the same day uh there was only 500 million it will go to in a different way but it's happening all over and I don't think any any companies like that so I just want to tell you that it's inspiring to work for grou of showers and Becky go to it all right the next question comes from slavin VAB brat um as CEO will Mr AEL be in charge of the portfolio of Common Stocks that Mr Buffett has been managing or will this function be exercised by Mr combms and Mr wesler as investing could be defined as the discipline of relative selection can major Capital allocation decisions such as large acquisitions be separated from the common stock selection process yeah I would say that decision actually will be made when I'm not around and uh I may try and come back and haunt them if they do it differently then but I'm not sure the Ouija board or they will get that job done so that job I'll I'll never know the answer on whether I get covered but I feel very comfortable about the fact that it will be made by uh a board that they've got loads of brain power they got a dedication to a to an unusual institution uh and uh they they will figure things out but I would I would say that if I were on that board uh and were making the decision I would probably knowing Greg uh I would I I would just leave uh I I would leave the capital allocation to to Greg and uh uh he understands businesses extremely well and if you understand businesses you understand you understand Common Stocks I mean if if you really know how business works you are uh you are an investment manager what how much you manage maybe just your own funds or maybe other people and if you really are primarily interested in in getting assets under management which is where the money is you know you don't really have to understand that sort of thing but but that's not the case with Ted or Todd obviously but I think the responsibility ought to be entirely uh with Greg that's uh the responsibility with has been with me and I farmed out some of it and I used to think differently about how that would be handled but I I think the responsibility should be that of the CEO and whatever that CEO decides may be helpful in in in effectuating that responsibility uh you know that that's that's up to Amber herds decide at the time they're running the money but uh uh so I would say that my thinking on that has has developed to some extent as the sums have grown so large at Bard uh and we do not want to try and have uh you know 200 people around that are managing a billion each it just doesn't work uh and uh uh I think that when you're handling the sums that we will have you've got to think very strategic about how to do very big things uh and I think Greg is capable of doing that I think I've missed a lot of stuff in the past uh so I'm actually wiser about doing that now uh but I uh you know I would do it better this time around than 2008 n if something akin to that happened but uh it won't be exactly like 2008 or nine you can be sure of that but you also can say that there will be times when uh having huge sums available extremely quickly maybe it'll be once every 5 years maybe it probably be more like once every 10 years or something but the way as the world gets more sophisticated complicated and intertwined uh more can go wrong and uh uh and there's no sense going through here exploring the possibilities of the different things that could happen but you we do do want to be able to act when it happens and I think the chief executive should some be somebody that can weigh buying businesses buying stocks doing all kinds of things that might come up at a time when nobody else is willing to uh move it wasn't that people didn't have money in 2008 it's it's that they were they were paralyzed and uh and we did have the advantage of having some capital and and a willingness to uh an eagerness even to act uh and a government that that in effect looked at as us as an asset instead of a liability and I think that all of those qualities will be even more important uh as our Capital pile grows and so I think uh Greg may have have a even more fun than I had uh in in a period when uh extraordinary things were happening and and we were the logical place to go um it uh you never know whether it'll be next week next year next decade but you won't be you know it won't be a century from now that is for sure uh and uh uh the more intertwined and sophisticated the world financial situation gets the more vulnerable it gets in a certain sense it it solves a lot of small problems but it leaves it more vulnerable to large problems Greg Des bother at all or not with without uh directly answering the question I think there's one important thing is I think as we go through any transition it's important to know that the capital allocation principles that burer lives by today will continue to survive warranted and I think that's what the thing I'd want to communicate that will we have our operating businesses Insurance non Insurance we're going to cap we'll provide them the capital necessary to be successful and grow if it's appropriate um at the same time expecting a return of capital from them when they have excess cash and then as we've discussed or you've touched on uh always looking at potentially new businesses as a whole or in a piece and as you've always highlighted and I fully agree it's a we're we'll always look at equities as we're investing in a business either 1% or 100% but we're looking at the business we're looking at the economic prospects of that business and how sustainable it is and what it will look like 10 years from now and is our the capital we originally put in at exponential risk or or where where's that risk sit that profile and then of course um and then we'll obviously have our our our our continue to always put excess cash in the safest investment there is in in US treasuries knowing we want to Main maintain that Fortress of a balance sheet for two reasons one to act but also to always protect our shareholders if we have a we want to maintain the position Berkshire is in now uh realistically for the to Ure it uh to ensure it inures well when he says that it makes me wish I'd stayed around to be number two instead of number one in this process over the years it it's it's uh you know it it doesn't get more fun than what we what we we're doing and and and uh and we're better positioned than ever before we're not positioned though however to earn extraordinary Returns versus what American Business generally earns it uh as I'm you know I would I would hope we could be slightly better but nobody's going to be dramatically better in some and you know over the next Century it gets very hard to it gets very hard to predict who the winner will be and and if you look back as we did a few meetings ago as the the top 20 companies in the world at at 10e intervals uh you realize the game isn't quite as easy as as it looks but getting a decent result actually is reasonably should be reasonably easy if you just don't get talked out of doing what has works in the past and don't get carried away with fads and don't don't listen to people who have different interests in in uh mind and the the interest of our sholders okay we'll go to station number one hello Mr Buffett my name is Tomo I'm from D Germany um this is my first time out here in omahas so thank you for having us here today so my question is directed to you Mr Buffett and Mr AEL in 2019 you reportedly made a bit for the it distribution business Tech data and commented that you understand its role as a middleman I wonder if you could kindly elaborate on the criteria you look at when evaluating it distribution businesses like dat data and their competitive position thank you well we had some experience with distribution businesses and we know uh their potential who would agree in their limitations and uh Greg you were involved in that more than I was so that I mean that was a case where uh there had been a bit made and there was a go shop provision and uh I think the management probably would have preferred that we buy it and and when we went in with a better bid uh the original party raised their bid and and we never make the same offer twice so Greg tell them about yeah so uh absolutely in 2019 we saw Tech data as a unique opportunity when we saw the other bid and and the underlying value of that distribution business we did waren waren and I were talking others made the conclusion we should talk to management we talked to the team they were very interested in uh Berkshire being their long-term owner uh and we still saw good value in the in the opportunity and we had a good understanding of distribution businesses we have TTI it's not exactly um identical to Tech dat in that they're very specific to the who their customers are and who they serve and supply and who they purchase from because on the distribution side it's important to have that input coming in from from folks who want their product and you know it's needed on the other side that there's demand for it and they had a they had an excellent model uh if you think of TTI for example that Warren talked about Paul many times and the person who founded this business but but it's a unique business in that uh our revenues on that business is approximately $10 billion the average part they sell is a little over 9 cents 95 billion Parts go through their warehouse every every year uh but it's a model that if you have the right people on both sides of the equation and you understand that well there's there's a unique opportunity there and and that is something um we saw in in Tech data and and as Warren highlighted we made our bid unfortunately it was then taught by the original bidder and we uh moved on but we uh we thought very highly of it yeah we we've probably seen at least five of them uh in aggregate that over the last three or four or five years uh it's not a business that you can dream about because uh uh it's a it's a decent business but uh for example many of the items that the manufacturer just they don't want to tie up their Capital you tie up if you have you know a million plus skus they the stocking un it's like selling jelly beans or something like that and then then and you do you're serving a purpose to a degree but you don't you don't really it isn't your product in in in effect of yeah I mean you're you're just a good system for the producer of the equ to get it to the to the end user U without tying up a lot of capital being in a business they don't want to be in and so we we we understand we we we we but there's no magic to it there was a with with TTI you had a marvelous man running things and and and he you know and he's and he he uh he when you get a marvelous person running something to some extent that's thex for for better people underneath Greg and I went to Paul Andrews Andrews funeral what few years ago and there were 300 people or so there and there wasn't one person that had to say something particularly nice but stretched a little bit about about the decas I mean everybody Paul Andrews was The Real McCoy and he was he was an amazing man and he behaved wonderfully with Burkshire I mean he wanted to do more for birkshire than Burkshire would do for him I mean it was very s and you run into those people as I say you run into people that bend over backwards forest and then some bend over forwards but that's just the way it is in this world uh and we've had we've had quite a few that been over backwards of course and uh the distribution business is not a wonderful business but it is a business and it's a business that that if it's big enough it's one we would look at and we would buy additional and TTI makes some smaller Acquisitions on its own all the time I don't even I don't even hear about them until I read the quarterly reports and so we we we want to build up we want to build our businesses in every area that we operate and we've got unlimited Capital to do it so so we we're we're willing to have small Acquisitions take place if they fit in with something we already have but we're not in the business of going out after small Acquisitions and if we did we would we just don't have the people for it and it wouldn't move the needle anyway at burshire so uh we mayor we we would we would have been happy doing uh the deal that the questioner asked about but if we don't do it you know it just doesn't make that much difference we want to do it if we do it we'll do it well we'll do it right they'll made the right decision if they don't uh you know we will find something else to do with the money in the end and and we can always buy a little more of TTI for you the shareholders by just buying in our Stu talk too MH exactly yeah okay let's see we need Becky next don't we yeah Becky all right Warren earlier you you talked about selling some of the Apple uh shares in order to build up your cash Supply and I think it's had a lot of people wondering what where you see opportunities or what might be coming or Market valuation so I'll ask this question from Foster Taylor at the 1999 annual meeting you mentioned that if you own owned all of America's 500 businesses you would be making $334 billion while paying 10.5 trillion doar you emphasize that this was not a good return on investment today by my math the S&P 500 has a market capitalization of around 44 trillion with profits of around 1.45 trillion this is a very similar return on investment to the 1999 levels do you see similarities in the market today and the 1999 levels well one thing has changed dramatically from uh well from 1990 I'm a on the 1999 but uh there have been times in my life that I've been a washing so many opportunities that I could have invested everything by Nightfall and then there's other times when the year goes well not in the early days but now uh we we just we haven't seen anything that makes sense that's that moves the needle now we've made small Acquisitions during the year our companies have made Acquisitions and and we you know Greg and I may talk about something that involves a $300 million purchase or something like that and you know it if if it fits well enough we do it but uh and if our managers see things that fit them we want to look at them because our managers do not have necessarily the same equations in mind that we do but there's some managers which we would hand a uh give just say you know whatever you decide to do and then there's other managers that wouldn't that would not know how to allocate Capital particularly and that they don't have to be able to be great Capital allocators if they happen to be great at serving customers and understand their own industry and all of that you know they can be great managers and a good many of them are capital allocators and others are but the uh this is not this is not a time when when uh the phone is going to be ringing often but there are times from and gr will know how to handle them as well are better than than uh I have over time and Charlie and I would you know we we missed a lot of things and uh what we really regretted was missing something that you're not be very big we never we never worried about missing something we didn't understand I mean why why should we be be able to you know predict the future of every business anymore than we can predict you know what what wheat yelds are like to be in Illinois next year well not Wheaten Illinois Wheaten Kansas but corn Illinois uh so uh I I wouldn't I don't really think of whether it's similar in 1999 because I'm not that good on chronology anyway unless something really dramatic happened at the time I mean I remember things from 2008 and N better much better than I remember whether something happened in 2015 or or 1987 or well 198 7 I remember because of October 19th but but uh uh I'm I'm I just don't think I don't think that way I just look at what I can do every day great um I'm going to have to use it nothing sorry nothing to add okay well we'll go to station two I mean it's nice to know what lines you can get an Applause [Laughter] for station two hello my name is Stefan WB I am a shareholder from Hur Hur Germany I've been coming to Omaha since 2007 and I'm deeply grateful for all the things I could learn here both about investing and about life in particular creating circumstances that will enable me to lead a productive life during my entire healthy lifespan so thank you for that my question my question to Warren your favorite holding period is forever holding American Express or Coca-Cola for decades Burkshire recently went in and out of marel and you uh I believe sold and later bought oxy which I think happens to everyone all the time um but can you maybe to us give examples of your thought process when you exit positions thank you well there various reasons for exiting positions one is if you need the money but that doesn't happen very often with us but it used to happen on every decision I made when I started when I was 20 years old uh which I considered the postr period uh uh although I actually started in 1940 to if you just talk about buying stocks but in any event uh the the uh decision process uh is is really quite interesting in a certain way because it it we we made Charlie and I made decisions extremely fast but in effect after years of thinking about the parameters that that that would enable us to make the quick decision when the when it presented itself and uh people have speculated on how I've decided to really put a lot of money into apple and for a reason I can't one one one thing that Charlie and I both learned a lot about was consumer behavior that didn't mean we thought we could run a a furniture store or anything else but we we did learn a lot when we bought a a Furniture chain in Baltimore and we quickly real realized that it was a mistake but having made that mistake made us smarter about actually thinking through what the capital allocation process would be and how people were likely to be behave in the future with department stores and all kinds of things that we wouldn't really focused on so we learned something about consumer behavior from that we didn't learn how to run a department store now the next one was Sees Candy and C's candy was also a study of consumer Behavior we didn't know how to make candy you know we didn't there were all kinds of things we didn't know uh but we've learned more about consumer Behavior as we go along and that sort of background in a very general way led up to the study of consumer behavior in terms of apples products and in that case while I watched what was happening at the furniture mark in terms of people leaving the store even though we were selling Apple at Price where we weren't even making any money but it was just so popular that uh if we didn't have it uh people left the store and went to Best Buy or someplace and and if you know the bumkins they can't stand anybody leaving the store so you they behave accordingly but then you learned you you that had the interest in the brand and then you had the a million different inputs but I think the psychologist call this apperceptive Mass but there is something that comes along that takes a whole bunch of observations that you made and knowledge you have and then crystallizes uh your thinking into action big action in the the case of apple and there actually is something which which I mean it mysterious but I really can't talk about but it was it was perfectly legal everything I'm sure you that but it it just happened to be something that entered the picture that uh took all the other observations and and I guess my mind reach what they call a perceptive mask which I really don't know anything about but I but I've uh I I know the phenomenon when I when I when I experience it and uh uh you know that is we saw we saw something that I felt was well enormously underpriced maybe I've used this example before but if you talk to most people if they have an iPhone and they have a second car the second car cost some 30 or $35,000 and they were told that they never could have the iPhone again or they could never have the second car again uh uh they would give up the second car but second car cost them 20 times the iPhone did so now people don't think about their purchases that way but but but I think about their behavior and uh so we just decid without knowing I don't know the faint there may be some little guy inside the iPhone or something I I have no idea idea how it works but I also know what it I know what it means to people and I know how they use it and I think I know enough about consumer Behavior to know this one of the great products maybe the greatest product of all time and the value it offers is incredible and I think it has in Tim Tim Cook I think it has somebody that in in his own way is the equivalent of a partner partner with Steve Jobs that could do one thing extraordinarily well and and more than one application but one thing and and and and Tim was the perfect partner to serve sequentially with him so it it's uh you sort of know it when you see it I I actually saw it with Geico when I I went there in 1950 I didn't know exactly what I was seeing but lurmer Davidson on a Saturday in four hours taught me enough about what I understood what auto insurance was and I knew what a car was and I knew what people went through people's minds you I know I knew they didn't like to buy it but I knew they couldn't drive without it so that was pretty interesting and then but he filled in all the blanks in my mind as I sat there on that Saturday afternoon and uh you know every now and then it happens you know why do you have this the person you met you know there all these all these different potential spouses in the in the room and then something happens that you decide that this is the one for you you know I think was it Rogers and Hammerstein that that Some Enchanted Evening wrote about that well our idea of Enchanted Evening is to come up with a business Charlie and me and uh and uh there is an aspect of of uh knowing a whole lot and having a whole lot of experiences and then seeing something that turns on the light bulb and uh uh that will continue to happen and I hope it happens a few times to you but you can't make it happen tomorrow but you can prepare yourself for it happening tomorrow and it will happen sometimes hey Warren he he mentioned oxy which I think is a great example yeah where you made the original decision basically on a a weekend with some thought but as the more you learned about oxy and the um the the asset position they had their their ability to operate in a in a in an exceptional Manner and then a a strong CEO around Capital allocation I think your confidence in which was reflected in continuing to acquire more shares is sort of that type process yeah it it it's it's exactly to the point I mean I just learned more as I went along I learned enough you know I'd never uh I'd heard of accidental petroleum ocidental petroleum happens to to uh been a descendant not a descendant but but a continuation of City service which was the first stock I bought and of course uh I I I knew a lot about the on and gas business but but I didn't know anything about geology and uh uh so I I knew the economics of it I I had a lot of various things stored in my mind about the business but I never I never heard of Vicki until I guess it was a Friday or Saturday and we met on Sunday morning we made a deal but that was one sort of deal and then as time passed all the kinds of different events happened and you know icon came in I mean there million things you couldn't predict at the start and and I formed certain opinions as I went along but then uh a I learned more as I went along and then at at a point when I heard an investor call that bigy was on it it it put things together for me in a way didn't mean I knew I had a sure thing or anything like that I don't know what the price of oil was going to be next year but I knew that it was something to act on so we did and uh we're very happy we did and we still don't know what the price of oil is going to be next year and what he does but but I think it the odds are very good that it was in but not a CCH that it was a good decision and uh you know we've got options to buy more stock and and you know when we get through with it uh we could it could be a worthwhile investment for for Berkshire and and we're in it and we're in it for Keeps and uh there are other things that we own that we aren't in for Keeps but uh oh incidentally I I should just throw this out since there's been speculation on we've sold a I was 100% responsible for the paramont decision I read speculation that that one of either Ted or Todd had some involvement in that no it was 100% my decision and uh we sold it all and we lost quite a bit of money and and uh and that happens in this business too but uh actually owning Paramount um made think even further uh I like to think deeper but I certainly uh thought harder even about about the whole question of what people do with their Leisure Time and and uh you know what the governing principles are of running an entertainment business of any sort whether it's sports or movies or whatever it might be and uh I think I'm smarter now than I was year or two a couple years ago but I also think I'm poor because I acquired the knowledge in the manner I did but uh uh if if I just want to be very clear that that a we lost money on Perma and B you know I did it all by myself folks I don't know whether I've anticipated one of Becky's questions now but we we will uh we will find out let's see now you yeah you're next Becky y uh yes you did anticipate one of the questions um let's go to another one this um this question comes from Vincent James in Munich Germany in the Chairman's letter Warren points out that the profit margins for BNSF have slipped relative to all five other railroads however Warren comments in the letter BNSF carries more freight and spends more on Capital expens expenditures than any of the other five major railroads and has a vast service territory Second To None given the comments from Warren about the clear strengths of BNSF what explains the decline in revenue and profit and in particular the profit margins relative to the other five railroads what are the issues relative to the other railroads and what is being done to address them please be specific okay and I will well how specific we get depends on what uh uh Greg wants to say but Greg is that it's Greg's responsibility it my responsibility for the purchase and for the operation up till Greg took took over but I think I'll let Greg answer that then sure yeah the the the uh Warren touched on it and the comments from the uh as reflected there are are very accurate if you look at uh this quarter's results or our uh last last year's results um they were both uh they're disappointing as shareholders and disappointing in the uh Rel relative to the other class one railroads and as highlighted in the question there's five other class one railroads so it's pretty easy to um um understand how you're performing versus the others and it and there's a lot of other variables but there's some very um simple things to look at when we look at where we've been on uh uh with associated with Burlington I would I would just back up a little bit um because if you go back to uh 2021 the Burlington team and management team and the group we're making excellent progress on a lot of fronts when it comes to our uh operating and both being efficient and effective in how we're operating the railroad and I remember very specific comments from myself in 2022 where I commented that uh that was a year there was all the supply chain issues a lot going on in the west coast ports our trains were backed up in a variety of places and we called that a reset year and I think we did need a reset year on the operational side but as we moved into um 23 the business cost level cost structure we didn't reset it to the underlying demand we were seeing uh uh we anticipated more demand and the or and we did not reset our cost structure and the team's working very hard as we speak to to um both reset the cost structure and allocate the cost resources uh where they need to be uh and and when you go through something like that uh what we've recognized as an organization yes the the demand of the rail will will drive a certain amount of the cost but the the r is that the rail industry if you go back many many years it's it's it's flat there's not a lot of growth in the industry there's opportunities to become more efficient effective and our margins can go up but the reality is the demand's going to be flat but it does move within different sectors of the rail it can be in the consumer products it can be in industrial it can be an egg but overall it's generally going to be relatively flat so we need to get our cost ructure right and we need to get it right both for the the coming year but for the long term and that means it's going to be a continuous exercise We Can't Stop we can't say we we've gotten far enough because our competitors and we compete with the other rails but we also do compete with the truck industry we have to have a cost structure allows us to compete both within our rail industry and within the transportation sector as a whole so the team at Burlington's working very hard to address the cost structure uh just like we have in the past I think one thing uh we do recognize when the other railroads have implemented uh Precision scheduled railroading there's other metrics that we have to continue to pay attention to and and challenge ourselves if we're not at their level what are the things that are driving it so we're going to when they ask for specifics I'll give you a few uh we have to look at our Rail Yards and understand how we're how we're managing that we have to look at our locomotive Fleet both the size and how we're utilizing that and challenge ourselves and we have to then go back to how we're using our employee resources and allocating them across the the business so there's a lot to be done there our team's 100% committed to uh uh driving to the right cost structure that's consistent with the underlying demand in the business and uh and then we can't stop there is the is the answer so so a lot to be done but we have a a team that's uh absolutely engaged and committed to it and we'll make uh we're going to U make good progress in the in in this current year at burshire we want everybody to have the idea that there's a lot to be done with every business you know it so I mean it is uh you know we fell Nam py would bu a remark remarkable company in om Building Company really remarkable and there question after everything they did that something that was done particularly well you know digging a tunnel under the East River or something when it said it couldn't be done he would say he would be he was pleased but not satisfied and that is exactly the way we want the attitude to be at Berkshire forever uh Omaha is a railroad town if if President Lincoln in 1862 I think it was had decided to pick St Joe or plmouth or any place else to build the Transcontinental Railroad all M would probably be a little town of 20,000 or something on the banks of Missouri but but making with Lincoln's desire to make this the uh Eastern Eastern Connection uh make a Transcontinental Railroad almost just took off so it's been it's been R it's been railroading at its base the uh you know and anybody that was interested in financial matters had to think about railroads uh plus they had a certain glamour to him anyway but the interesting thing is that up which is our main competitor uh themselves fell way behind 20 or 25 years ago before Jim before Jim young came in and in 2000 whatever it was eight or so I started buying three railroad socks in and uh Union Pacific BNSF and and uh Northfolk um Western I believe I don't know why I wasn't buying CN but in any event uh Jim young had done a marvelous job with being with Union Pacific uh so we we were owned all three stocks but what we did in 2019 is we were able well we already own 22% of it but overall those was $35 million a billion dollar which was a significant part of our Capital we were able to put it to work in a in a business we liked and we there's certain tax advantages that come in terms of making money in something that's more than 80% own but call it 100% own in this case versus making it through stocks so it has a a net benefit to us from making the same amount of money owning one of the other railroads by owning all of the railroads and we got 35 billion out during a recession AR period I think that was the worst quarter the third quarter of 2009 maybe the rails it had for a long time so it's it's worked out actually it's worked out very well but it's because we we were putting out capital in 2008 and9 and if we put put money in anything we'd have made a lot of money but it's more satisfying and it's actually better in certain ways taxwise to make it from something that's out 100% owned and all B bunch of uh you know 5% or 10% owned uh uh businesses were you know as I mentioned in the annual report railroads are absolutely essential to the country that doesn't mean they're on The Cutting Edge of everything they're just essential to the country and uh you know it it uh that's why the government you know I think they took them over one time and they they negotiate what our labor settlements will be and everything and and if you shut down the railroads of the country you you it be would be incredible the effects uh but and it would be impossible to construct now I mean it look at what's happening in California when they're trying to build a line I mean you know everybody's worried about the environmental effect of of every Mile and you know and what'll happen to the various species of birds can you imagine the rail system of the United States being built it it it would it would take decades unless a war was on and the government took over things and just ordered them you can't create it so we love owning uh a business like that it's going to be around 100 years from now won't be the best growth business in the world at all during that period but it'll be essential and and what it earns in its relation to its pit it's it its replacement value is a pit but we'll do fine in terms of what we paid for it and we'll we'll distribute substantial amounts in relation to what we paid uh to Berkshire in a very tax efficient way and uh so it's it's uh when the question is what are the issues to the other railroads uh you know it wouldn't have been the end of the world if at all if we bought the Union Pacific and Jim young had stayed alive to run it for us that would have been great too but but we had the opportunity to to buy BNSF and it's been good for them and it's been good for us and we think it's been it's a very important asset to the country and you know I just hope we can find something in other industries that what makes as much sense is that where we can put a whole bunch of money to to work uh at an advantageous time uh so let's go on to station three is that correct or not yeah yeah yeah okay k k good afternoon Mr Mr AEL my name is s po wo a resident of New Zealand but originally from Thailand land this is my first time in America and the first time attending the meeting the journey was quite rough but it was all worth it though because I can now personally thank you Mr Buffett and the late Charlie manga where he still with us for organizing such a wonderful event and most importantly for being such an exceptional role models and sharing your wisdom with us all these years so thank you well thank you for coming so here's my question for you m m Mr Buffett towards the end of 2018 you mentioned that you guarantee you could make a 50% annual return if you had to start again with under 1 million the question is if tomorrow you woke up in the body of a of of body 20y old Amer body but that's fine and your name was now Warren alakat and you had some money to invest on a full-time basis what method or methods would you use to achieve that return would it involve flipping through 20,000 pages of Moody's manual or similar Publications or finding you you know to find s buts or would it be hunting for great companies at a fair prize as Mr mwood or would it be a combination of both with opportunity cost serving as the final Arbiter of which method to use given that your investing opportunity has now broaden significantly thank you C good question I'm glad you came and the uh the answer would be in my particular case it would be going through the 20,000 pages and since we were talking about railroads you know I went through the Moody's Transportation manual a couple of times that was, 1500 or 2,000 Pages or well probably 15 pages and I found all kinds of interesting things when I was 50 or when I was uh 20 or 21 and I don't imagine here there's anybody here that knows about the Green Bay and Western railroad company but uh there were hundreds and hundreds of railroad companies and I like to read about every one of them the green band Western uh in those days everybody had a nickname for for railroads I mean that was that was just what Northern Pacific was the Nipper and you know Phoebe Snow was one of them in the East that used to go up to Cornell and uh the green band Western was known as grab baggage and walk and gbnw and they had an they had a bond that was actually the common stock and they had a common stock that was actually a bond and you know you know that that could lead to unusual things but they wouldn't lead to unusual things that would work for you with many millions of dollars but but if you collected a whole bunch of those which I set out to do and actually that's what impressed Charlie when I first met him because I knew all the details of all these little companies on the west coast that he thought I would never have heard of it but I knew about the Los Angeles Athletic Club or whatever it might be and and he thought he was the only one that knew about that and that that that uh that became an instant point of connection so to answer your question uh I would I would I I don't know what the equivalent of Moody's manuals or anything would be now but I would I would try and know everything about everything small and I would find something and with a million dollars you could earn 50% here but you have to be in love with the subject uh you can't just be in love with the money you really got to just find it like a you know essentially like you know people find other things in other fields cuz they just love looking for it to a biologist looks for something because they they want to find something they and that's buil in I I don't know how the human brain works that much and I don't think anybody understands too well how the human brain works but but there's different people that that uh just find it exciting to expand their knowledge in a given area we uh you know I know great bridge players I know great chess players actually uh Kasparov came to Al and met Mrs B I've had the luck of of meeting a lot of people that are unbelievably Smart in their own Arena and do some unbelievably dumb things in other areas so all I know is the human brain is complicated and but it does its best when you find out what your brain is really suited for and then you just uh pound the hell out from that point and that's what I would be doing if I if I had a small amount of money and I wanted to make 50% a year but I also wanted to just play the game and you can't do it if you really if you don't find the the game of Interest whether it's Bridge or whether you know whatever it may be chess or this case finding Securities that are undervalued but it sounds to me like you're on the right track I mean anybody will come all the way to this annual meeting has got something in their mind other than Bridge or chess uh so I'm glad you came and come again next year and now we move Now we move to Becky uh this question comes from Denny Poland a shareholder from Pittsburgh when describing the principal agent problem Mr Munger said that capitalism often works best when the people managing the property also own the property in recent years agents of Pension funds and asset management firms who do not have significant personal ownership stakes in birkshire have forwarded proposals that were not in the economic interest of shareholders what can be done to limit the negative influence of these agents in the decades after you're no longer able to cast significant votes against them well that's that's a very perceptive question and and it's been answered in a temporary manner but but but who knows what the how the situation will develop in the future all I know is that you have a wonderful hand that Burk sure have the way but you have to you have to be able to think your way I mean obviously you have to think your way through political realities and you have to think your way for what will cause you want a you want to be on you you you want to be regarded as an asset to the country because uh you'll find more solutions if you are uh an asset you owe to the country anyway but but beond that you you'll find more solutions and if if you're regarded as evil or or something and worse yet if you deserve it so it it it's it's it's something that's constantly in her mind uh and it needs to be in the mind of the directors and they need to think for themselves on this rather than about a conventional wisdom uh which uh you know in in a sense you don't want to become a cynic about life but almost everybody that approaches you if you have tons of resources is has got some interest in figuring out how to use your resources to their advantage and that's true whether they're in politics or whether they're in Investment Banking or whether they're selling you uh uh well whatever it may be that they're selling I don't want to do any injury to anybody but but uh you know life insurance agents see the advantage of buying life insurance and and investment managers get paid based on assets managed to get interested in selling you their services imagine if everybody in this room were following the investment advice of somebody that said you know for 1% a year I'll tell you how to invest your money and in 1950 when we started in 19 65 they would have they would have said well by bursh sure half away and and if they were around now and they still have their 1% deal they'd be collecting $8 billion a year from people who aren't getting any dividends from us so they they would have a different interest in in the kind of contract they worked out with you than you would have and best thing to do is just pay him a commission one time and on the stock but you have to be Lord th what human nature does to both other people and to you and uh uh then you uh uh you know if you think of if you think of through well and he actually listen to uh what Charlie has told you uh you'll have a big head start on most people Charlie there's one thing that I should mention that really is terribly interesting about Charlie Charlie knew the importance of psychology and human behavior and incentives and all of that he he figured that out very early and of course he he gave some talks even on you know 25 or so ways whatever it happened to be I don't remember the exact number but different ways that one person could take advantage of another by understanding how humans behave and then after doing a magnificent job of explaining it he believed in understanding what others would do but he thought it was beneath him and to actually use those methods to manipulate people that it's really interesting human being that thinks through the psychology of human behavior and figures out you know how you become a great insurance insurance uh salesman or manager in Wall Street or accumulative assets under management or whatever it may be and you get very rich by understanding the weaknesses of others to some extent and then decide that it's very important for you to recognize these when they occur it's very important for you to know them better than the person that actually is using them but not but you don't have to stoop to using him yourself and and Charlie told me that that uh you know his in his lifetime after he figured this out there were a couple of times when he used them he wasn't proud of it but he also never lied to me so uh he uh he uh explained to me that you know there were a couple times when he use some of these techniques but but he it wasn't he didn't plan on using him anymore but but he also wanted me to know that if if if I ever did something like that I wasn't really behaving terribly that he he allowed for he allowed for the fact that humans humans May misbehave so I'm sure that uh I behaved somewhat better before my marriage than I did afterwards in my enthusiasm for different activities like dancing or something and and and he said that's you know we all do it but don't do it again so that's U that's part of acquiring human wisdom and speaking of human wisdom we've just got that one book out there by Charlie um I mean poor Charlie's Almanac and that's worth reading three or four times I think I read Ben Graham's book about five or six times and each time I read it I realized that I I just needed to think a little more deeply about certain things they weren't complicated or anything but uh you know it it's better to it if you've got some great instruction like you get with Charlie it's better to read it several times than to just just figure you'll just read every book once in it's in the library okay let's go to section four uh Jeff Rober from Tulsa Oklahoma and I'm thinking of Dr Graham Mr Munger your father and my question is for all of us but it's probably especially for the younger people in the room uh the importance of picking the right heroes in life choosing friends wisely and maybe tell us a story if you could about each of those folks thank you sir well there's no question you're 100% right in terms of of uh having the right Heroes and uh you know you're you're lucky if you get them I mean Charlie had Charlie had him I had him and the interesting thing my sister is here today uh my younger sister that uh with the two survivors uh and we both experienced having the same hero even though as We Grew Older we saw that we didn't agree with plenty of his ideas but we did agree with his values and motivation and and that's that's a better lesson than having somebody that that's reading to you from a catechism that is has got a lot of rules in it which are pretty good rules but but there's a special special place for somebody that that is going to continue loving you even if you break some of the rules and uh that's what Charlie had in his life was what Bernie and I had in our life so so I would I would just repeat what you said I'm don't need to give you a bunch of well I when I um ran away from home I'll give you a specific example with me I when I ran away from home and went and we had shed up to Hershey Pennsylvania and got picked up by the state police and everything and I talked these other two guys into it and uh we lied like crazy to the state police you know saying we had our per parents' permission some some some kid at the uh place where we stayed had TI them off that we'd run away from home and we started like I said when the state police picked us up we decided that two things you know we decided to tell them bunch of lies about the fact we had our parents' permission and we decided we better get out of pery because these cops were going to find out sooner or later and uh so anyway we end up back in Washington after a couple days and uh when I walked in the door uh uh well one of the boys mother and this other kid was the congressman Roger Bell and his mother was in the hospital over this whole thing he taking out his cash and the savings bonds and so she was sick and judge Bell her husband was all concerned and everything and I walked in the door and in Washington and my mother said how come he came back so soon and my father said he he said I know you can do better and and uh I just paid more attention to my father than my mother and uh so you want to have the right Heroes and you don't have to have them it's not the heroes based on what they've accomplished and it's it's just you know it's it's it's uh it's it's the people that you want to be yourself and uh if you if you copy the right people you're off to a great start and I don't mean great start about making money I mean a great start about living your life so you can check with my sister birdie who was here and see if I've told the story correctly she ran away from home too incidentally but but uh she didn't get as far as I got but uh uh she was running away to go over to my grandfather's house which was about 2 miles away uh but I I don't want to denigrate her run away a bill these because she she was much more accomplished than than I am and all kinds of other things but when it comes to running away I I definitely uh outlaster okay let's go to Becky uh this question comes from vant Sharma in India Warren you and Charlie have often said that you were able to identify the people you want to go into business with and have had an exceptional record in that however in the case of pilot we noticed that the final stake purchase ended up in a dispute and had a sense of smart accounting to put it one way to squeeze a little more out from the deal than was deserved by the seller knowing well that this has been settled out of court and needs due confidentiality I would like your views on some of the lessons learned that may be beneficial for future deals to watch for and for coming leadership to look out for as well well I I'll I'll make two comments on that that a couple of the directors had our doubts about their doubts about going in uh and uh in any event pilot is working out well for us and as my friend Sam Butler one time said to me that and he was talking in general about certain kinds of situations but he said well waren he said alls well well that ends and that's where we are so we'll go to station [Laughter] five well we're getting to station 5 I'll tell you a little bit more about the fellow that is now running pilot and knew you may have met here that uh Greg had known for a long long time and he grew up in Omaha and uh uh came from a poor family and was raised by his mother right and went to the same high school public high school that my wife went to North High went to University of Maha set an alltime record in in in the rushing yardage at playing there he was a bouncer yes drafted by the New York Giants as I remember exactly yeah and uh uh but then injured actually in spring training I as I remember in some way and so he ended up being an intern not an intern but a trainee you might say for for been American before I was there and uh and now he is uh still relatively young and he's running a huge company and we' we've got incredible confidence in what he will do and we like very very very much the business that was created by by Big Jim hlam and uh uh the you know it it really is most and only in an American type story but it it does show you what somebody was some real stuff and with a mother that believes in them and with bad breaks along the way I mean imagine how you'd feel if you were drafted by the New York Giants and and then you suffered some in injury in Spring train or something I mean you know you spend your it just it hurts but uh it's not an experience I would have ever had it's I mean that was the last guy chosen you but the uh uh you know to see that he's running a company about depends on the price of the deal but it's a huge company and uh what does he have 20 25,000 yeah employees yeah and and he's got many many many years to go so I couldn't be more pleased about not only the acquisition of pilot but but just what it it tells you about America you can C what what do you have to look up read about him in Google or an interview with Adam yeah um I try to think of it's a podcast yeah he he's got a podcast podcast that will just blow you away and if you don't think this is a a great country and has a lot of great people it all I got to do is read that podcast so but we do have a great set of ass are oh yeah you know if you look at Pilot we have 800 more than 800 station Travel Centers and just so everybody knows I mean the beauty of that and there is a question regarding this morning around fuel choices at Pilot and the exciting thing is in the end Pilot's going to serve whatever fuel our customers need it can be electric it can be renewable diesel it can be diesel um or any of the various sustainable fuels but the point is has exceptional locations that are on the interstate highways and we hundreds of them hundreds of them and we bought an incredible franchise and now we have a great leadership team in both Adam and his team that's around him so we're we're we're pleased where that opportunity will go yeah we've got probably the average one might be 10 or 12 acres or something like that Zone commercial on interstates throughout the whole United States I mean it it who know knows but uh but what was created there is amazing too you follow the the played at University of TNS Sylvania I mean University of Tennessee uh and uh undefeated and uh uh came away from this football team and you think well another football player you know maybe that he goes out and and there may be some intermediate Parts in the story but a little bit but he he buys a gas station and he turns it into something that is huge so it's we're we're really delighted with with it and uh and You Know It uh it's another kind of only an America story and uh uh you know how many of us can become an all American number one ranks team let alone start a a business that was on these sort of heights so we feel very good about it Becky no I think they're ready for five now oh I think he's up there now's ready to go okay go to it hello Mr Buffet uh my name is j y I came from uh micro City hyan China so I want to express my sincere gratitude for you for the extraordinary value you generated for shareholders and the positive influences you've had on younger generation of investors like us and uh my question relates to the concept of maximizing the duration of compounding as individuals age the quality of compounding inevitably diminishes what are your secrets in maintaining your sharp man extraordinary judgment and great physical condition we wish you well thank you well you don't know me well but that's I like just keep talking I mean the uh well I you know I'm just you have to be just plain lucky I mean there's no question about it that uh that uh there's 100 or a thousand you know multiply number of times that some drunk could have pulled out of a car and broadsided me or you know just all the bad luck that you can have in life and I you know you can say my my great skill has been avoiding bad luck but that isn't a skill that's luck or bad bad bad activities and and you know and then to get to be you know I would not have been a if you'd taken my high school class and you say you know a couple of you are going to live to be 90 men are going to live to be 90 3 I you know I wouldn't I would not have been a heavy favorite I can tell you that and I wouldn't have bet on myself uh but uh you just now you you shouldn't make the most of your luck when you get it and sometimes I've done that and sometimes I haven't uh I mean it is absolutely true that if I had it to do over again there there'd be a lot of different choices I would make what do they would have ended up working out as well as as things have worked out it's hard to imagine how they could have worked out any better so so I but it is interesting how many mistakes you can make uh if you just keep going and Charlie you know we used to talk about that that you just Soldier through you just keep going and but you still need luck you don't you don't want to anybody that says I did it all myself is just kidding I mean it's just it's it's uh they're delusional and uh uh you know actually live in a country where the life expectancy is pretty darn good you know so that alone is a huge plus I was was born if I've been born my sister's here and she was born female and she's just as smart as I was and everything but but even my own family who really did well particular my dad love us all equally uh and and and in a terrific manner but he still told me that that this is 10 or well was born 10 years after the the 19th amendment was passed and but he told basically told my my sisters you know that Mary young well you still have your looks and he told me that the world you know that power in new is new and nature and that uh you really could do anything well I found there were a lot of things I couldn't do but but uh it it the message given to females and males was incredibly uh different by the most well-meaning and loving of parents you know like I say in 1930 I mean it been that way for millions of years it's it changed quite dramatically but obviously not completely but during my lifetime but it's been during a latter half of my lifetime if you take my sisters if they've been born even five or 10 years later they they still would have been uh you know getting instructions when they went away to college to be sure and be sure and get married well or get arranged so that you're going to be married you know while you're in school because after you get out all the all the good ones are taken that was birdie was telling me that was a message that that you know basically was had been imparted uh to most lot of the women she had met obviously and so it it really it's it's extraordinary how much progress we've made but it's it's unbelievable how long it took to get made I mean that it uh it really does make you wonder about you know we've got all these heroes from American history and all the wonderful things they did but but how could they say all men are created equal and then write a constitution that women you know allow women not to be able to own property and depending on the state I mean just terrible conditions U but anyway that's how you learn about what the humans can [Applause] do and I feel and you got to feel better about the future for your kids than you would have felt 100 years ago no matter you know what the situation is anyway we'll move to Becky this question comes from Linda Frasier in Westport Connecticut Dear Mr Buffett in the past you've specified that 90% of your wife inheritance be invested in a lowcost S&P 500 Index Fund and 10% in short-term government bonds but the market cap of The Magnificent Seven tech stocks now represents more than one quarter of the market cap weighted S&P 500 Index which seems like a big bet on the tech sector I was wondering if you would now recommend investing some portion of the funds in a lowcost equal weight S&P 500 Index Fund rather than having all of the equities exposure and a tech heavy market cap weighted fund well that's an interesting question and and I will tell you that I I revise my will about every 3 years or so and I get little thoughts from time to time and then you don't you don't change it every time you do it uh you get a tiny thing but uh uh the one section I haven't changed is that that with my wife that she she got left a huge amount of money by practicly anybody's uh measurement except uh pittens compared to what uh I've accumulated in total and it doesn't it won't make one bit of difference to her in life uh whether she beats the S&P or anything else Al all all I want to leave is plenty of money to take care of way Way Beyond anything she'll ever spend and at the same time give her as much peace of mind as possible and and really make it so that the trusty you administers it doesn't really have to doesn't have to worry about whether it just doesn't make any difference whether she beats the S&P or not and the main thing is that she feels that she feels that she's in a financial position which of course she will be that uh she doesn't even need to think about it and the trustee doesn't have to worry about getting sued or anything else so it's it's it's uh it's simply not an economic condition now obviously with 99% plus of what I have going to to uh philanthropy and and you know and I've got my three children and the one good thing is that they've at the age of 70 69 and 65 they have matured remarkably probably more than their father and uh that uh but the at the same time they've got less time to work with the money than they would if you know they were 50 or something like that so you do you do the best in it in accomplishing your objectives in your will and and in the end uh you know you can't you don't know what's going to happen after you die die but you make sure that that uh to the extent that you leave have a lot of money to leave you take obviously you uh you want to say thanks to a lot of people and quite a few people in terms of specific requests you want to take care of the your family but but in my case that requires practically no money and and the uh a fair amount for taxes but I have and my children are in charge of what happens to the funds that are left but like I said the the problem is when you live as long as I have and kids get older you who knows what happens with mortality tables and they're the ones that I really uh want to see handle the distributions and they will and they'll be very good about it and uh uh but if we're all alive 3 years from now they'll be 3 years older and so everything you can't solve everything in life you do the best you can with it uh uh people do interesting things I've been around probably as many rich people as almost anybody and a fair number I know what they they're doing or have done with their funds and uh the idea that you can have a huge amount of money and leave every everybody very rich and have people liking each other less when it all happens is it's humans are really uh they are interesting to watch some of them handle it beautifully and others are terrible one thing lawyers will always tell you is um don't don't use ctools in other words you know when you change your mind on a will just write a new one but tear up the old one don't do it by just adding ctisle uh but I believe I'm correct uh certainly read it that Paul Getty was the richest man of the world presumably uh at one point in the 1950s or 60s and it's very interesting guy to read about and he had five W five U uh wives and he's the one whose grandson was kidna kidnapped and they they sent sent spetti a an ear of the child and everything I mean it it's not it's not a happy life when you get through it but the one one thing he he did that was kind of interesting he actually liked to use cardols because I think he had like 25 of them and it was kind of his way of writing well I'm taking you out of the world because you know and so he he he uh he he sort of delighted in explaining through his will what uh uh how we felt about all these people I mean you really get some strange things revealed in a will I just I just read about uh a will of fellow that made a whole lot of money and was leaving it to his uh I don't know whether his children grandchild whatever it may have been but in any event his opening line and his will is is and this was done some years ago but I know something about the family uh this opening line in effect said I'm writing this will while I'm writing in the economy session of Eastern Airlines number such and such I mean he believed in getting getting right to the point of what what what the people that were recipients how they should live and he was going to be judging them and it's just so damn interesting to watch people's Wheels but uh you know one one guy left a lot of money to his uh wife on the condition that she remarries so that at least one man would mourn his passing you know well I'm not giving legal advice here as they always say but but I feel I feel very very very good about how things have turned out and uh uh and I wish I could figure out ways better to use you know the really vast resources I've got in the some of the really important questions of the world but but I haven't been able to do that I mean I had a few goals when I was 30 or 40 in may have Britt them into the wills then in terms of what the world needed done and how the money could be used and unfortunately I decided that it just what they weren't feasible to accomplish and of course I was setting out to accomplish things that that were important but nobody had solved yet so you got to expect that why why should I be able to solve them but nevertheless it it's uh it's an interesting but and the one thing about it is everybody here I don't know about the ones who have come from other countries but they should you should have a will CU if you don't have a will you still have a will and it'll be whatever the state says and it's amazing four American presidents died intested without Wills four you know we've only had 45 and imagine becoming president of the United States and not having a will uh but you can look up a nobody reason I think I think Lincoln uh I'm certain Lincoln was one of the four and here's a man I mean I don't know what you can always say well he didn't get around to it but that but it's hard to imagine that that uh why Abraham Lincoln would have died intestin I'm sure we've got some Lincoln Scholars out there that will write me after this and explain why but I and I'll be interested to receive their letters but human beings are human beings and and uh we all have weaknesses and peculiarities and everything else and don't be too hard on yourself uh because you have some of those but don't be totally forgiving either you can change the future you can't change the past but you can't change the future okay station six um good afternoon my name is Caroline and I'm a lawyer in San Diego don't hold that against me remember Mr Munger was once an attorney too right um first I'd like to sincerely thank you Mr Buffett for your business Integrity tireless leadership and generous contribution to philanthropy my question for the distinguished panel of two is now that the AI Genie is out of the bottle as someone astutely put it earlier today what business in Brookshire haway may be most at risk with AI well that's a wonderful question uh the problem is I really don't know anything about AI but uh uh obviously you know anything that's labor intensitive intensive and that uh that uh it can create an enormous amount of leisure time now what the world does with leisure time is another question uh whether more leisure time I know an awful lot of people think when they go to work at first what they want is leisure time and what I like is actually having more more problems to solve than this uh uh but AI is profound and I mean that's what makes it makes it a genie you know is what what going to happen uh uh I'll uh I could tell a few Genie jokes about better or not uh but uh I guess where I I don't know what you know in terms of our businesses they'll figure things out I mean we've got smart people and and it's obviously if it's used in a pro-social way it's got terrific benefits to society but I don't know how you make sure that that's what happens anymore than I know how to be sure that when you use two two atomic bombs in World War II that you know that you hadn't created something that could destroy the world later on yeah yeah I think when we think of AI a lot of the business units I mean we're truly WN trying to think uh how does it make us more efficient more effective I mean it it results in more idle time and we're probably not thinking of the iter iterative I AI where um we're looking at very specific processes where our people can implement it and either at times it displaces the labor but then hopefully there's other opportunities for them within the within the business but I think you know when you think of all our businesses I mean we're we're we do have a heavy labor workforce in a lot them but I think we at the stage we're at as a as a company and and maybe where it's at right now it's really around how do we do things more effective more efficiently um more safely if it's involves dangerous processes so it's we're we're early in yeah John John mayard KES was just wonderful to read and incredible mind but in around the time I was born he uh he wrote a book about what could happen uh I don't know whether it was in the next 100 years or whatever and and he predicted correctly that that that output per capita would grow at this incredible rate that it has but but uh in terms of speculating as what people would do with that I mean this this guy was unbelievably smart but uh it hasn't developed exactly the way he predicted he was right about what was going to go into the equation but he wasn't he didn't have a figured out exactly what at all what what what uh would be the result so it's it is it is really well we didn't know when we were developing the bomb that there would probably be as very soon n countries three of whom we should worry about plenty that will have what they have but we didn't really have any choice and you could have had all kinds of Papers written on and everything else but we were going to do it anyway we needed to do it but and if you haven't read it it's fascinating to go to Google and read the letter by Leo zard and Albert Einstein to President Roosevelt written about a month before U almost exactly a month before the uh Germany or Hitler moved into Poland and it laid out well Li's Lord knew what was going to happen for at a good what was going to happen in terms of nuclear bomb development and he he couldn't get through to Roosevelt but Roosevelt but he knew that a letter signed by Albert Einstein would so it's probably the most important letter ever written and you can read which it's just fascinating to me uh but that started the Manhattan Project that started you know it just everything float out of it and like I I'll bet anything that Roosevelt didn't understand it but he of Albert Einstein sent a letter and and uh and he probably knew what he was talking about and and he better get he better start the Manhattan Project it is it is it's just unbelievable what happens in this world anyway let's move on to uh be Becky I guess is next right yep um Randy Jeffs from Irvine California the March 25th 2024 Wall Street Journal reported that the treasury market is about sixfold larger than before the 2008 2009 crisis do you think that at some point in time the World Market will no longer be able to absorb all of the US debt being offered well I would say the answer of course I don't know but the but the my best speculation uh is that us that will be acceptable but uh for a very long time because there's not much alternative but it won't be the qualtity it it uh you know any any you know the national debt was nothing to speak of like you know for a long long time and then uh uh it won't be the quantity it'll it'll be whether in any way uh inflation would get let loose in a way that that really threatened the whole world economic situation and there really isn't any alternative to the dollar as a reserve currency and you get a lot of people give you a lot of speeches on that but that that really is the answer that and uh and Paul vulker worried about that back in 19 you know well before 1980 but but he had threats on his life and I happened to have a little contact with him at that time and uh he was an amazing amazing fellow that uh that in effect decided that he had to act or the really the the financial system would fall apart in some way that he couldn't predict and and uh and he did it and he you know had people threaten his life and do all kinds of things and but he was the man for that crisis uh but it it wasn't the quantity of US debt that was being offered that threatened the system then it was it was the fact that that inflation and the future value of the dollar you know the cash is trash type thinking the turn you know that that we setting up something that could really affect uh the future of the world in terms of its economic system and Paul Booker took it on and uh he was got as could be and if you haven't read a book or two about him uh or the one he last Roe you really ought to take a look at it uh but uh it is I I don't worry about the quantity I worry about the fiscal deficit you know if it it but I'm not a warrier just generally I mean I I think about it and uh uh but uh I don't sit and get up work myself into a stew about it in the least but I but I can't help thinking about it and that's uh we've got a we've got a great attention it's it's interesting and I think media enters into this and the uh focusing the focuses on the fed and they you know they just love it because things are always happening and economists are always saying what's going to happen with the fed and everything else but uh uh the the f deficit is what should be focused on and uh and uh J Paul is a a a not only a great human being but he's he's a very very wise man but he doesn't control fiscal policy and every now and then he he sends out a kind of a disguised plea for please please pay attention to this because that's where the trouble will be if if we have it yeah as one of the comics used to say there's a standup comic used to say who have I forgotten to offend after just talk and I always feel like that after these meetings but we've got we've got time for at least one question and maybe two but let's go to station Seven hello my name is Dennis from gon Germany I'm my first time here I'm here with my friend who would by the way love to invite you to dinner you talked about the importance of Heroes and we are very happy to and thankful that we have you as our hero with great values and uh thank you for that first of all my question is it is clear that you achieved great success in life earlier you talked about every investment having opportun cost from what I've learned in life that does not only apply to investing your money but also to investing your time and every hour you spend in your office is an hour you cannot spend with your spouse or children with the life experience you have now if you had the possibility to start all over again would you set your priorities any any different if yes how and why and what's the best way to invite you to dinner well well that definitely won't be one of my priorities if I figure out but that listen don't take it personally because that uh when when you know you can figure out the at the maximum how how long a period I've got and uh I don't I don't think uh I mean I can figure out all kinds of things that should have been done differently but so what you know I mean I'm not perfect I I don't believe in lots of self-criticism or being unrealistic about either what you are or what you've accomplished or what you'd like to do you do the you know you do a lot of things and and uh who knows whether somewhat different tradeoffs uh uh you know you just can't you can't you don't know where the path would have L I feel I I don't think there's any any any room in beating up yourself over what's happened in the past you know it's happened and you then you get to live the rest of the life and you don't know how long it's going to be and and uh you keep trying trying to do the things that are important to you and and if I was a doctor or if I was a you all kinds of different professions I might do different things but I really enjoy um managing money for people who trust me I don't have any reason to do it for financial reasons uh you know I'm not running a hedge fund or getting an override on anything but I just like the feeling of being trusted Charlie feel felt the same way you know that's that's a good way to feel in life and uh uh and it continues to be a good good feelings so I'm not really looking to change much uh and uh uh you know if I'm very lucky I get to play it out for six or seven years it could end tomorrow but that's that's true of everybody although the equation isn't exactly the same but I I don't believe in beating yourself up over anything you've done in past and I don't believe in well I believe in I believe in trying to find you know what what you're good at what you enjoy and uh and then I think the one thing that you can aspire to be because this can be done by anybody and it's amazing doesn't have anything to do with money but you can be kind you know that's you can be kind if you're uh and the the world's better off yeah I'm not I'm not sure that the world will be better off if I'm richer but there's no question that I mean and you know kind people and in the end uh aspire to be more or I'm sure many of you are yourself but just inspired of me more so and I guess we can take one more question from Becky and then we've wind up uh this question comes from Devin Spurgeon on March 4th Charlie's will was filed with the County of Los Angeles the first kodil kodil contained an unusual provision it reads averaged out my long life has been a favored one made better by Duty imposed by family tradition requiring righteousness and service therefore I follow an old practice that I wish was more common now inserting an ethical bequest that gives priority not to property but to transmission of Duty if you were to make an ethical bequest to Burkshire shareholders what duties would you impose and why I'd probably say read Charlie I mean he's expressed it well and uh I would well I would say that that if they're not financially well off uh if you're being kind you're doing something something that most of the rich people don't don't do when they even when they give away money but uh uh that's not a question when you're whether you're rich or poor and uh and I would uh I would say if you're lucky in life make sure bunch of other people are lucky [Applause] too okay there's just in case you know what my advice to myself would be has been during this [Laughter] period so we only got 30 what three questions or whatever it is but thank you very very much for coming and I not only hope that you come next year but I hope I come next year thank you thank you thank you [Applause]
