Investor Warren Buffett’s net worth exceeded $100 billion on Wednesday, as his shares reached a new peak of over $400,000 per share.
Berkshire Hathaway’s Class A shares rose to $407,750 on Wednesday, before falling to $398,840. The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate’s Class B shares were selling for $263.99, a far more affordable amount.
Berkshire Hathaway’s shares have been slowly increasing over the last two weeks, after the release of Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders late last month. Despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on many of Berkshire’s businesses, the company posted a $35.8 billion fourth-quarter profit, owing primarily to returns on the valuation of its investments on paper.
Buffett’s fortune, which is largely based on his ownership of 248,734 Class A shares, peaked at $101 billion on Wednesday. But he would be much more valuable, if he hadn’t been giving big blocks of Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other charities every year since 2006.
Buffett reports that the shares he has given to charities were worth more than $37 billion at the time of their distribution.
The 90-year-old billionaire was once the world’s richest man, but Forbes magazine’s latest list of the world’s richest man placed him at No. 5. With a fortune of $179.6 billion, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is the world’s richest man.
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway holds a majority stake in more than 90 companies, including the BNSF railroad, Geico insurance, and several major utilities. Manufacturing, furniture, shoe, apparel, food, underwear, and brick businesses are all owned by the conglomerate. Berkshire Hathaway owns large investments in Apple, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, American Express, among other firms.
