berkshire hathaway

Fortune Staff

Just as it dominates our economy, Big Tech now dominates Fortune’s annual ranking of corporate reputation.

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Berkshire Hathaway

Josh Funk

The Associated Press

Buffett just gave another $750 million in Berkshire Hathaway stock to his family charities

https://fortune.com/2022/11/24/warren-buffett-gave-750-million-berkshire-hathaway-stock-family-charities/

Chloe Berger

‘I’m not Warren Buffett’: Elon Musk says there’s a key difference between him and the investor—he actually makes stuff

https://fortune.com/2022/10/20/elon-musk-versus-warren-buffett-tesla-ceo-says-not-investor/

Tristan Bove

What really happened with the giant railroad strike that wasn’t—and how Warren Buffett was involved

https://fortune.com/2022/09/15/warren-buffett-rail-worker-strike-averted/

Nicholas Gordon

Yvonne Lau

The unconventional timing of Warren Buffett’s BYD stock sale reinforces his famed investment philosophy

https://fortune.com/2022/09/10/warren-buffett-investing-strategy-byd-stock-sale/

[MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER: The Fortune 500 is a list of the 500 largest US-based public companies by revenue. The revenue threshold for making it on the list this year, $5.7 billion. The total revenue accumulated by companies on the list was $14.2 trillion. Total profits, $1.2 trillion, 7.6% higher than last year. Number one on the list for the eighth straight year is Walmart. JEN WIECZNER: Over the last eight years, where Walmart has been number one on the Fortune 500 list, they've accumulated over $4 trillion in revenue. I mean, they're an industry unto themselves. PHIL WAHBA: Its business in the United States at the Walmart US chain has been booming. Sam's Club has turned around, convincingly. And also, Walmart International has benefited from the company focusing on a few key markets, rather than trying to be present in a greater number of them. SPEAKER: Coming in at number two is Amazon. ANDREW NUSCA: Amazon is called the "everything store," and for good reason. It really does sell everything, and it keeps selling more of everything. Its retail sales, which is the majority of its business, continue to grow. And that is a $67 billion business. SPEAKER: Revenue at the ecommerce giant grew 21%, allowing it to leapfrog Exxon Mobil and Apple. MATT HEIMER: The energy sector as a whole has been suffering for quite a while. And Exxon, as the biggest energy company in the United States, is certainly no exception to that rule. Part of the problem is that for well over a year now, a lot of major oil-producing countries have been pumping out a lot of extra oil, which creates a glut of supply and holds prices down. ANDREW NUSCA: While Amazon is a growth engine that seems to have no limits, Apple is actually seeing the limits of its growth. For years, it was benefiting from fantastic iPhone sales. Those sales are stagnating. The market is saturated for smartphones. And all of its other businesses-- the smart watches and services-- haven't really offset the enormity of the iPhone business. SPEAKER: CVS came in at number 5, up three spots from the previous year. Berkshire Hathaway dropped two spots to number 6. UnitedHealth Group and McKesson both fell one spot to 7 and 8, respectively, while AT&T and AmerisourceBergen held on to spots 9 and 10. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is the most profitable company on the list. MATT HEIMER: The thing that made Berkshire's profits really surge was a huge gain in their investment portfolio. That added something like $54 billion to their total net income. That's not actually realized profits. They didn't sell those stocks and bring that cash in. It's what's called unrealized gains. Essentially, it's an increase in the value of their stock portfolio. SPEAKER: Apple came in second, and Microsoft came in third. 17 companies made their debuts on the Fortune 500 this year, including Uber at number 228, with $14.1 billion in revenue. KRISTEN BELLSTROM: Most people think of Uber as a ridesharing business. That's the core of the company. But for the last few years, we've seen them steadily diversifying and experimenting with other businesses. And the big one for them is Uber Eats. ANDREW NUSCA: The coronavirus pandemic is awful, in a word, for Uber's business. There's a glimmer of hope, and that's its Eats business. Even though people are staying home and not traveling quite nearly as much as they used to, they do want food delivered at home. And so if Uber leans into that, it can probably stem the losses a little bit. SPEAKER: Facebook entered the top 50 for the first time, jumping from 57 to 46, with a 27% gain in revenue. Netflix jumped 33 spots to number 164. JEN WIECZNER: At the end of the year, they had more than 167 million subscribers worldwide. SPEAKER: GE and Boeing each fell 12 spots to their lowest historical rankings on the Fortune 500. KRISTEN BELLSTROM: GE has been struggling for a number of years now. The company is trying to make a turnaround, but they just keep getting hit in different businesses. A bright spot for them, until recently, has been their jet engine business. MATT HEIMER: Boeing has fallen many spots in the Fortune 500 this year, really, because of the fallout from problems with the 737 MAX. Those accidents have essentially led many airlines to suspend their use of the MAX. Airlines stopped taking new deliveries of that plane. SPEAKER: As always, it's hard to predict what next year's list will look like. But with the devastation brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 promises to be even harder to predict than usual. ANDREW NUSCA: If your business has strong fundamentals, you're in good shape. If you were teetering on a knife's edge, you're in trouble. PHIL WAHBA: Companies that were good at ecommerce and also having a large fleet of stores will be the winners. JEN WIECZNER: Clearly, the travel sector is going to be really hurt by this pandemic, and probably for a long time. And as a result, oil has also really been hurt even further, even when oil was already cheap. MATT HEIMER: Right now, they have so much oil backed up and stockpiled and in storage that they've had to shut down wells and literally just stop pumping new oil. And even if the economy recovers strongly in the summer and fall, you're still going to see a situation where oil companies are not going to be able to make up for the revenue that they lost this spring. KRISTEN BELLSTROM: One sector that I think is well-positioned is the technology world. We are doing our work online. We are seeing our friends online. We are keeping touch with our family online. Now that we're all living this way, I think that we will continue to to some degree in the future. [MUSIC PLAYING] 

Introducing the 2020 Fortune 500 list

Franchise_Lists

Amazon has taken the number two spot behind Walmart.

Walmart takes the number one spot for the eighth straight year.

Watch: Introducing the 2020 Fortune 500 list

[MUSIC PLAYING] Standing in your shoes today and looking back on your lessons learned, how do you define success? Well, somebody said success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get. One doesn't preclude the other. But I would say when you get to be my age, or even a little younger-- I'm 82-- if the people that you want to have love you, love you, you're a success. You can have all the money in the world, you can to have buildings named after you, hospital wings, whatever it may be, and unless you've got people that really care about you, you are not a success. And not everybody is going to make a fortune. Not everybody is going to be on football teams or whatever it may be. But if your children, the people you've worked with-- if those people love you after they've seen you in action for many, many years, you're a success. Thank you. I love that. That's beautiful. There was a woman I knew some years back here in Omaha. Her name was Bella Eisenberg. She was in a concentration camp after World War II, a Polish Jew. And she looked at me one day not too many years before she died, and she said, I'm very slow to make friends, Warren. Because when I look at someone, I say to myself, would they hide me? And if you get to be 70 or 75 and you have a lot of people who would hide you, you are a success. Wow. And if nobody cares about you, I don't care how much money you have, and how many medals you have or something of the sort, you are not a success. 

Insights: How Warren Buffett Defines Success

Uncategorized

True success only comes when you're loved.

How Warren Buffett Defines Success

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett says that true success only comes when those around you love and care about you. (April 2014)

standing in your shoes today and looking back on your lessons learned How do you define success? Well, somebody said successes, getting what you want happiness is wanting what you get. That one doesn't preclude the other. But I would say when you get to be my age or even little younger, I'm 82. Uh, if people the people that you want to have love you, love you, you're a success. Uh, you can have all the money in the world. You're gonna have buildings named after you hospital wing, whoever it may be. And the most people, uh, people that really care about you, you are not a success. And, uh, not everybody's going to make a fortune. Not everybody's gonna, you know, be on football teams or whatever it may be. But if your Children the people you've worked with, those people love you, Uh, after they've seen you in action for many, many years, years success. Thank you. I love that I It was a woman I knew some years back here in Omaha. Our name was Belle Eisenberg. She was in a concentration camp after World War told police you and she looked at me one day, not too many years before she died. And she said, I'm very slow to make friends, Warren, because when I look at someone, I say to myself, would they hide me? And if you get to be 70 or 75 you have a lot of people who would hide you, you are a success. And if you want, if they nobody cares about you, you know I don't care how much money I have, how many medals or something of the sort You were not a success.

[MUSIC PLAYING] So, Charlie, where did this thinking about investing-- that you don't buy cheap bargains, but you look for really good companies-- come from? Well, I have a habit in life, which is I look at it, and I observe what works and what doesn't. And I'd seen so many idiots get rich in easy business. So, naturally, I wanted to be in an easier business. It was very interesting to me, when I first met Charlie, he had a number of clients. His father had a number of clients. And he had thought about the businesses of each one of those clients probably in a much more perceptive way than most of them had thought about them themselves. I mean, he was incapable of not thinking through what the realities of the situation were, and what could be done about it. And he just analyzed things. What would work, and what wouldn't, and why. It's so simple. So what are a couple of those early investments that were reflective of this new philosophy of buying really good companies? Well, in terms of stocks, something like American Express would have been. They'd gotten in some trouble, but it was a wonderful business. And there were some others. In terms of buying the entire business, I probably didn't realize what a wonderful business our first insurance purchase was. But I know it was a good business. The first real business we bought that way was See's Candy. I mean, it was really an outstanding business. And I still had enough elements from my past that I really didn't want to pay the last few million dollars, and sure-- Few million? You didn't want to pay the last $25,000. Charlie reminded me that I was slipping back into the Stone Age again, and got me to move. So let's talk a little bit about your philosophy of managing companies. Berkshire Hathaway does not buy companies that have bad managers, right? Which is a little bit unusual. I mean, a lot of people like to buy good companies with bad managers, and then replace them. We tried it. You don't do that? We tried it with predictable results. And life is so much more fun this way too. I mean, who wants to spend their life trying to change people from their natural approach to life? If you want to ruin your life, spend it trying to change your spouse. Yeah. It's really stupid. Yeah. Marrying somebody to change them is crazy, and I would say hiring somebody to change them is just as crazy. And becoming partners with them to change them is crazy. Warren always used a phrase I really liked. He said, we make silk purses out of silk. Yeah, forget the sow's ears. We don't know how to make silk purses out of sow's ears. Never will. 

Insights: What Buffett Learned from Munger

Charlie Munger analyzes businesses thoroughly.

What Buffett Learned from Munger

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett talks about how his business partner Charlie Munger analyzes business more thoroughly than most investors. (April 2014)

So, Charlie, where did this thinking about investing That you don't buy cheap bargains. But you look for really good companies. Well, is it from I have a habit in life, which is I look at it and I observe what works and what doesn't. I've seen so many idiots get rich and easy business. Naturally, I wanted to be an easier bit. Charlie is very interesting to me. When I first met Charlie, he has a number of clients. Father had a number of clients and he had thought about the businesses of each one of those clients, probably in a much more perceptive way than most of them thought about themselves. I mean, it was incapable of not thinking through what the realities of the situation were. You know what could be done about it. And he just analyzed what would work in what wouldn't then why it's so simple. So what are a couple of those early investments that were reflective of this new philosophy of buying really good Cos Well, in terms of in terms of stocks in something like American Express would have been that I've gotten in trouble, but it was a wonderful business and there were some others in terms of buying the entire business. Uh, I probably didn't realize how what a wonderful business. Our first insurance purchased Woz. But I know it was a good business. The first real business we bought that way with See's candy. I mean, it was really an upstanding business, and and I still have enough almost from my past that I really didn't want to pay the last a few $1,000,000. And you mean you didn't want to pay the last 25,000? And Charlie reminded me that I was slipping back in the end of the Stone Age again and got me to move. So let's talk a little bit about your philosophy of managing Cos um, you don't Berkshire Hathaway does not buy companies that have bad managers right, which is a little bit unusual. I mean, a lot of a lot of people like to buy good companies with bad managers and then replace them. We tried, I don't do that. We tried and with predictable results and life is so much more fun this way to what's spend their lives trying to change people from their natural approaches. You want to ruin your life. Changed right to spend that dream that changers Wells. Yeah. It's really stupid. Yeah, you know, it's very somebody to change him is crazy. And I would say hiring somebody to change This is crazy. Yeah. On becoming partners with him changing this crazy warm had always used a phrase I really like you said we make silk versus out of silk. Forget the hausers. We don't know how to make so first, you never will.

[MUSIC PLAYING] I'm having the time of my life. At some point, your mind goes. And I think it was David Ogilvy that says, develop your peculiarities when you're young. That way, when you get older, people won't think you're going gaga. So I did that, I followed that advice. But my children will come in to me at some point. I've told all three to come in at the same time and tell me, you're going gaga, Daddy. And if only one of them comes in, they're out of the will, (LAUGHING) so they have to come en masse. That's great. But the truth is, in terms of managing money, or even managing a business, depending on the nature of the business and the way it's managed, age really isn't much of a deterrence. It deters everything else, in terms of hand-eye coordination, balance, all kinds of things. But in terms of getting the most out of other people, which is what my job is, and in terms of allocating capital, so far, it hasn't been a deterrent. Who knows what happens next week? But you have a contingency plan in terms of governance? Oh, it's total. If I die tonight, tomorrow morning, there will be a CEO named. The board knows exactly who is it. If for some reason, that person's not available, They know another one. It's what we spend a majority of our time on. 

Insights: Will Warren Buffett Retire?

Buffett shares his thoughts about retirement.

Will Warren Buffett Retire?

The legendary investor, manager and philanthropist Warren Buffett shares his thoughts about retirement and about how he is preparing for it. (April 2014)

I'm having the time of my life. At some point, your mind goes, I mean and I've told my I think I think it was David Ogilvy that says, Develop your peculiarities when you're young. That way, when you get older, they won't think you're going gaga. So I did that. I followed that advice, but my Children will come into May and some point. I've told all three to come in at the same time and tell me you know, you're going ga ga Daddy. And if only one comes in there out of the will, so many. But it's the truth is in terms of managing money or even managing a business, depending on the nature of the business and the way it's managed, age really isn't much of an eternity turned everything else that I'm in terms. I hand eye coordination, balance all kinds of things, but in terms of getting the most out of other people, which is what my job is, and in terms of allocating capital so far it hasn't been any turn. Now who knows what happens next week, but you have a contingency plan in terms of governance? Oh, it's total I mean, if I die tonight tomorrow morning, there will be a CEO named More knows exactly what is it? For some reason, that person's unavailable, you know, another one. I mean, it's what we spent a majority of our time on.

Berkshire Hathaway

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As of 2/2/22

Berkshire Hathaway

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World's Most Admired CompaniesAs of 2/2/22

World's Most Admired Companies
As of 2/2/22