LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The Oracle of Omaha is ready for retirement. At age 94, the billionaire investor Warren Buffett is stepping down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. His company is one of the world's largest and owns businesses ranging from insurance and railroads to Dairy Queen and Duracell. But Buffett also has fans far beyond Wall Street. NPR financial correspondent Maria Aspan reports from Omaha.
MARIA ASPAN, BYLINE: They came from all over.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: From London.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Boston.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: South of Omaha, about 30 miles.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: We're from a little town of 26,000 people - Fort Dodge.
ASPAN: Thousands of investors in Berkshire Hathaway flocked to downtown Omaha last weekend for a yearly event known as Woodstock for Capitalists. They came to shop at a gigantic pop-up mall full of Berkshire-owned brands like See's Candies, Fruit of the Loom underwear, and Geico-branded pickleball sets.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: Pickleball.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: Christmas.
ASPAN: Are you going to buy that?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: Yes, I am (laughter).
ASPAN: They came to run in a Berkshire-sponsored 5K race.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #7: You're not just running, you're rebalancing your life portfolio.
ASPAN: And most of all, they came to pay tribute to Warren Buffett.
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WARREN BUFFETT: This is my 60th annual meeting. And it's the biggest, and I think it'll be the best yet.
ASPAN: Buffett is one of the giants of American capitalism. He's made common-sense investing accessible to regular people, and he's made a ton of money for his shareholders and himself. Two of his faithful are Lorenzo Alaan (ph) and Peter Shieh (ph).
LORENZO ALAAN: Listen, I'm almost 80 years old, and Warren Buffett is going to retire soon. I want to see him.
PETER SHIEH: Yes. I've always wanted to come, so we thought this - we've got to come soon, sooner than later.
ASPAN: Buffett is also famous for being, well, normal, at least for a billionaire. He's built a cult of personality as a humble, folksy Midwesterner who eats at McDonald's and has lived in the same house since 1958. Rosalyn Trumm (ph) lives in Omaha. She's been coming to Berkshire's annual meeting for decades.
ROSALYN TRUMM: It's spiritual and morally uplifting. I think it's remarkable to hear Warren talk about what business and society and values should be.
ASPAN: That's all stuff that Buffett loves to talk about. He's one of the wealthiest men in the world, but he markets himself as a frugal, down-to-earth senior citizen. And in many ways, he is. He's given away a lot of his money, and he's encouraged other billionaires to do the same.
CATHY SEIFERT: He is a capitalist, but he's also a responsible citizen and a decent human being.
ASPAN: Cathy Seifert is an analyst who covers Berkshire for CFRA Research.
SEIFERT: When the general public bashes billionaires, I don't think they're bashing Buffett.
ASPAN: That's a real accomplishment right now at a time that billionaires like Elon Musk are wielding unprecedented political power in the United States and becoming widely unpopular for it. Buffett usually avoids talking politics. But last weekend, he did weigh in on President Trump's sweeping new tariffs in his usual folksy style.
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BUFFETT: In the United States, I mean, we should be looking to trade with the rest of the world, and we should do what we do best, and they should do what they do best. Trade should not be a weapon.
ASPAN: So Buffett has long stood for stability and the wealth that comes from it. But now he's shaking things up. On Saturday, Buffett surprised everyone by handing the reins to his deputy, Greg Abel.
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BUFFETT: The time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end.
ASPAN: A 94-year-old announcing his retirement shouldn't be that shocking. Buffett will remain chair of Berkshire, and he publicly designated Abel as his successor years ago. But Abel just doesn't have the same Main Street celebrity Buffett does. So at some point, Berkshire Hathaway and its investors will have to figure out life without its beloved billionaire. Still, some shareholders are keeping the faith. Hours before Buffett announced his retirement, I asked Lorenzo Alaan how he thinks about Berkshire after Buffett.
ALAAN: I feel confident. I feel confident. I told my kids, do not sell it. You know, you sell your house, your jewelry. Don't sell Berkshire.
ASPAN: That's the kind of devotion that money alone can't buy.
Maria Aspan, NPR News, Omaha.
FADEL: Thanks to Nebraska Public Media's Arthur Jones for his additional reporting on that story. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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