Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway briefly surpassed $1 trillion in market value on Wednesday, marking the first time a non-tech company on Wall Street has achieved this milestone. Buffett, who will turn 94 on Friday, has been the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway since 1970, transforming it from a modest textile company into one of the world's most valuable enterprises and making himself one of the world's wealthiest individuals.
On Wednesday, Berkshire Hathaway's market capitalization briefly exceeded $1 trillion during early trading, joining an elite group that includes tech giants like Apple, Nvidia, and Microsoft. It is the only publicly-traded non-tech company, apart from Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco, to reach such lofty levels. Berkshire Hathaway's shares rose approximately 0.9 percent at 12:15 pm local time in New York (1615 GMT), valuing the company at just under $995 billion.
The Nebraska-based firm's portfolio encompasses a wide range of sectors, including insurance, railroads, and retail. Buffett, known as the "Sage of Omaha," popularized a calm, long-term investment strategy that contrasted with the short-term mentality prevalent among many market participants at the time. Recently, Buffett has been in a selling mode, convincing Berkshire Hathaway to offload significant amounts of stock in some of its largest holdings, such as Apple and Bank of America, and accumulating substantial cash reserves.
The company has invested its growing cash reserves heavily in government bonds, to the point where it now holds more short-term US Treasury bills than the Federal Reserve.
