⌚ Warren Buffett Is Retiring From Berkshire Hathaway After 60 Years

In today’s newsletter I discuss Warren Buffett is retiring from Berkshire Hathaway after 60 years, OpenAI is staying a nonprofit, Signal isn’t very secure, 100% tariffs on the movie industry, SpaceX just became a city, and Oscar Piastri wins the Miami Grand Prix.

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WHAT WE’RE READING

⌚ Warren Buffett Is Retiring From Berkshire Hathaway After 60 Years

In news that shocked some people, but has been a long time in the making, Warren Buffett announced at Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting on May 3, 2025, that he would be retiring from his role as Chief Executive Officer by the end of 2025. 

Warren Buffett has led Berkshire Hathaway for 60 years, transforming it from a struggling textile manufacturer that he and his partners bought in 1965, into a $1.16 trillion dollar conglomerate. In his speech to shareholders, he recommended to the board that Greg Abel, his chosen successor and the current Vice Chairman overseeing Berkshire's non-insurance operations, should receive the unanimous endorsement of the board to take over the CEO position of Berkshire Hathaway on January 1, 2026.

While he is stepping down from the CEO role, he’s not leaving the company. Warren Buffett will remain at Berkshire Hathaway as the company's Chairman, indicating his continued involvement in the strategic direction of Berkshire Hathaway for the foreseeable future.

Want to hear some insane stats? Under Warren Buffett's leadership, Berkshire Hathaway's stock has delivered an unprecedented return of 5,502,284% between 1965 and the end of 2024, vastly outperforming the S&P 500's 39,054% gain over the same period of time. This insane growth comes out to a compound annual growth rate of 19.9% for Berkshire, nearly double the S&P 500's 10.4%.

As Warren Buffett gets ready to hand over the reins of Berkshire Hathaway, the company sits on a cash pile of $347.7 billion dollars as of the first quarter of 2025. When asked about his big pile of money, Warren Buffett has stated that he just doesn’t see any fairly valued companies in the market to acquire, but that he has gotten close to pulling the trigger on few only to continue to hold off at the last minute.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has a philosophy of buying well run companies that have long-term economic potential and trustworthy management teams. I think he should look into acquiring Disney.

Hear me out.

Disney currently has a market valuation of $166.95 billion dollars as of today, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. If you were to add a 25% premium to that you’d get a valuation of $208.68 billion dollars. That’s less than ⅔’s of Berkshire Hathaway cash pile, so they can afford it!

That’s my bet of what Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway should do with his stockpile of cash.

❌💰 Business

OpenAI has decided to not get rid of its nonprofit status, caving to pressure from the industry and fierce opposition from competitor Elon Musk’s xAI.

What will it cost them? Well, their recent $40 billion dollars in funding from SoftBank was contingent on this transformation. I’m guessing someone else will be willing to step up with funding if SoftBank is no longer interested.

Maybe we should ask ChatGPT who might be interested in investing in them?

🎬 Entertainment

Out of nowhere on Monday, President Trump announced a 100% tariff on all movies produced outside the United States, asserting that Hollywood is in a steep decline.

What?!?!

The U.S. film industry is the world leader in entertainment. Hands down. End of story.

A tariff on movie production makes no sense. Right now the ability for movie studios to go overseas for video shoots, editing, and dubbing is what has allowed many successful movies to be produced with shrinking budgets. If you put a tariff on those productions then you can kiss goodbye to nearly all indie films, and my guess is half of the future movies that could be up for Oscar nominations in the future will never be greenlighted.
 
The Motion Picture Association reported a $15.3 billion trade surplus for the U.S. film industry in 2023, meaning the U.S. film industry made more money that other countries made.

So the U.S. film industry is already doing great. Why mess with that success?

📱 Tech

A version of Signal, the supposedly secure encrypted messaging system, called Telemessage, which is itself a modified version for government use, has been hacked and the company Telemessage has suspended services. The Trump administration is embroiled in a scandal involving members of the administration using this app to discuss war plans.

So the fact that the service that members of the Trump administration just used to discuss military operations was hacked probably isn’t a good thing.

I’m always telling my kids, never send a message that you wouldn’t want the entire world to read. I guess that could be good advice for some adults too.

🚀 Space

SpaceX just became a city! Well, actually Boca Chica, Texas just became a city and renamed itself Starbase. This election shouldn’t be surprising. The entire town is populated by SpaceX employees, and now the new mayor and city commissioners are all SpaceX employees.

So yea, SpaceX essentially just became its own city.

After residents of Boca Chica, Texas voted to officially incorporate as the city of Starbase, with SpaceX employees elected to key leadership roles. SpaceX’s vice president Bobby Peden has become the new mayor, and Jenna Petrzelka and Jordan Buss, both SpaceX employees, have been elected as city commissioners.

Why would SpaceX want to create its own city you might be wondering? The answer lies in greater control over local regulations and infrastructure development that will impact SpaceX directly.

So next time you complain about your taxes, you can at least be grateful they aren’t being sent to Mars.

🏁 Sports

Formula 1 has never been as exciting as it was on Sunday, when Oscar Piastri secured his third consecutive win in the Miami Grand Prix, and fourth of the season, solidifying his lead in the Formula 1 championship with 131 points.

Oscar Piastri’s teammate at McLaren, Lando Norris, finished second with Mercedes' George Russell claiming the final spot on the podium.

Max Verstappen finished in fourth place at the 2025 Miami Grand Prix, after getting passed by Oscar Piastri on the first lap. Better luck next time Max!

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irl Media NEWSLETTER is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.