Warren Buffett plans to dispose of his entire Berkshire Hathaway stake within about eight years through donations to four charitable foundations, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The 95-year-old Berkshire chairman said he hopes his three children will complete the disposal of his shares by December 31, 2034.

Buffett converted 8,000 Class A shares into 12 million Class B shares for donation. The Sherwood Foundation, Howard G Buffett Foundation and NoVo Foundation will each receive 1 million shares, while the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation will receive 9 million shares.

“My goal is to dispose of all of my Berkshire shares within about eight years,” Buffett said. “I have every hope that the three of them are able to carry out the disposal of my shares by December 31, 2034.”

He now owns 188,290 Class A shares and 1,162 Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett said grants to the three foundations managed by his children will increase annually, while donations to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation will rise at a somewhat faster pace.

“Of course, mortality is unpredictable, but my remaining shares will be donated to the four foundations one way or the other by December 31, 2034,” he said.

Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares were little changed in pre-market trade after the announcement.
Also Read: Dow Jones| Nasdaq | S&P 500 | US Stock Market Today | Live: S&P 500 and Nasdaq open higher as CPI, bank earnings take focusGreg Abel took over as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway on January 1 this year. The succession plan, long anticipated by investors, saw Greg Abel assume operational control from January this year. Abel is also expected to lead Berkshire’s next annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, signaling a shift in day-to-day leadership even as Buffett remains an active presence.

Despite the transition, Buffett had earlier indicated he would continue coming to the office, reinforcing his long-standing approach to investing and business. His continued engagement suggests that while Berkshire has entered a new phase structurally, its core investment philosophy shaped by Buffett is unlikely to see any abrupt change.

Abel has now begun putting the company’s record cash pile to work. Berkshire agreed to buy Alphabet shares worth $10 billion in a private placement last month, the Google-parent said.

Berkshire began investing in Alphabet in last year’s third quarter, and owned $16.6 billion of shares as of March 31 this year. Last month’s investment made Alphabet one of Berkshire’s five largest common stock holdings, which are led by iPhone-maker Apple.

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DNB Bank ASA (DNBBY) Q2 2026 Earnings Call July 14, 2026 7:30 AM EDT

Company Participants

Rune Helland – Head of Investor Relations
Kjerstin Braathen – Group Chief Executive Officer
Marianne Wik Sætre
Harald Serck-Hanssen – Group Executive Vice President of Large Corporates & International
Rasmus Aage Figenschou – CFO & EVP of Corporate Market

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Conference Call Participants

Shrey Srivastava – Citigroup Inc., Research Division
Gulnara Saitkulova – Morgan Stanley, Research Division
Namita Samtani – Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division
Markus Sandgren – Kepler Cheuvreux, Research Division
Sofie Caroline Peterzens – Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Research Division
Johan Ekblom – UBS Investment Bank, Research Division
Riccardo Rovere – Mediobanca – Banca di credito finanziario S.p.A., Research Division
Jacob Kruse – Bernstein Autonomous LLP
Simon Skaland Brun – ABG Sundal Collier Holding ASA, Research Division

Presentation

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Operator

Hello, and welcome to the DNB Q2 conference call. My name is George, and I’ll be your coordinator for today’s event. Please note, this conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I will hand the call over to your host today, Mr. Rune Helland, Head of IR to begin today’s conference.

Please go ahead, sir.

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Rune Helland
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you very much, and hello, everyone, and welcome to DNB’s second quarter analyst call. And here in Oslo to answer all your questions, we have, in addition to Kjerstin and Rasmus, we have Maria Ervik Løvold from Personal Banking, Marianne Wik Sætre, Corporate Banking, Norway; Harald Serck-Hanssen, MCI; Alex Opstad, DNB Carnegie; and Eline Skramstad, Head of the CRO. Before we open up for questions, Kjerstin will give you the highlights for the quarter.

Kjerstin Braathen
Group Chief Executive Officer

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Thank you, Rune, and thank you all for taking the time to be with us today. Just a few highlights on the quarter that we believe is a good quarter, demonstrating high activity across all of the

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh on Tuesday told House lawmakers that the central bank’s policymakers have “no tolerance for persistently elevated inflation” in his first testimony as Fed chief.

Warsh said in his prepared testimony for the House Financial Services Committee that concerns about inflation influenced the Fed’s decision to hold the benchmark federal funds rate steady at a range of 3.5% to 3.75% at the Fed’s June meeting.

“The Fed’s number one objective is to get monetary policy right – or as near to it as we possibly can. That is our clear and constant aim, the star we steer by,” he said. “And if we get policy right – and we will – the inflation surge of the last five years will be a thing of the past.”

“My colleagues and I recognize that high inflation has been an undue burden on American households and businesses. While monthly price fluctuations are inevitable – especially in an unsettled world – underlying inflation over longer time horizons is determined largely by monetary policy,” Warsh said.

“The members of our Committee have no tolerance for persistently elevated inflation. And we share a resolute commitment to restoring price stability,” he added.

FED POLICYMAKERS’ INFLATION WORRIES WEIGHED ON RATE CUT OUTLOOK AT WARSH’S FIRST MEETING

Warsh was asked about how he would respond if President Donald Trump targeted him or other policymakers in an effort to influence interest rate policy, and the chairman emphasized the Fed is an independent central bank – which the Supreme Court recently affirmed.

“The Supreme Court said that the Federal Reserve and the conduct of monetary policy is independent. To the extent there were questions about it, the Court answered those questions,” Warsh said, adding he would continue to do his job if the president were to attempt to fire him.

Warsh went on to say that his goal for the Fed “is for there to be no politics. To the extent there’s politics there, we’re going to get rid of them.” 

The Federal Reserve is tasked by Congress with pursuing a dual mandate of fostering full employment and price stability in line with a long-run 2% inflation target. Warsh said the Fed will be attentive to both sides of the mandate, though he noted the inflation portion of the mandate is further from the goal at this time.

“In my view, the two parts of the mandate are not in conflict. This is not an either or proposition. The more we can do to deliver low and stable prices, the more we can get it such that people aren’t worried about inflation, the more employers are going to want to hire more workers,” he explained.

“You gave us a remit, we take both parts of it seriously,” Warsh said. “As we look out the window now, the labor markets look to be in pretty good balance. We’ve got some work to do on the inflation front.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates on Warsh’s testimony.

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What impact do hormones have on women with ADHD? A first of its kind study by Kings College and Queen Mary University in London is putting the link to the test, by asking 50 women who have ADHD and are taking medication for it to track their menstrual cycle. They will log the impact it has on their ADHD symptoms, and daily life more broadly. Report academic Dr Jessica Agnew-Blais and Laura Mears-Reynolds from the charity ADHDAF+ join presenter Nuala McGovern to discuss.

We hear about the current government consultation aiming to give added financial security to more than 3.5 million unmarried couples when they separate. It’s hoped the overdue reforms will help protect women and better meet the needs of modern relationships. Nuala discusses this with Mandip Ghai, a lawyer from the legal charity Rights of Women, who have campaigned for new laws, and Jenny Allen who is feeling the long-term impact of her separation on her finances now she is semi-retired.

Parents of school-age children will know that this is the time of year when thoughts turns to a present for their teacher. But collections can be divisive when so many families are feeling financial pressure. The question of how much to give, who should be included or whether to contribute at all can be fraught. Author and comedian Helen Thorne from the Scummy Mummies comedy duo shares her thoughts on the hot topic dominating many school whatsapp groups.

Video game God of War will have a female protagonist for the first time in the form of Laufey, both a powerful woman and a mother. Nuala is joined by player and journalist Vicky Jessop and The Guardian’s games editor Keza Macdonald to discuss the significance and online backlash.

Presented by: Nuala McGovern
Produced by: Sarah Jane Griffiths

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Workers’ unions have previously warned against job losses in South Africa’s mining sector, which employs almost half a million people, external and accounts for more than 4% of national GDP, external.

De Beers is majority-owned by Anglo American, which is reportedly trying to sell it and shift focus to the growing copper market, external fuelled by the recent AI boom.

At the Venetia mine, De Beers has pledged to use those two years of downtime to make infrastructure more “efficient” with increased “capacity”, external, ready to reopen production once market conditions improve.

Times remain tough across the industry, which has seen the International Diamond Consultants’ rough diamond price index almost halve since 2022.

Lab-grown diamonds have gained in popularity in recent years, as consumers voice ethical concerns about miners’ pay and working conditions as well as environmental damage.

Yet De Beers and other established firms have cashed in on those industry changes too, producing their own lab-grown versions at a snip of the price one would pay for natural diamonds.

De Beers is not the first large producer to scale down operations in recent years, but it does occupy a particular place in the public imagination owing to its long history dating back to 1871.

Its founder was Cecil Rhodes, the English colonist whose forces dispossessed indigenous Africans of their land and denied them basic rights

He became a millionaire in the process and justified their disenfranchisement and racial segregation, external to Cape Town’s Parliament several years later, saying “the natives are children… they are just emerging from barbarism, external“.

His legacy in southern Africa has become a lightning rod for discussions about “decolonising” institutions which continue to bear his name.

This includes those that have statues of him and scholarships founded on his enormous wealth – like the UK’s University of Oxford, whose past Rhodes Scholars, external include ex-US President Bill Clinton and former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.