Warren Buffett – chair and CEO of the giant conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) has been known for decades as one of the world's richest people. He even spent quite a stint as the richest person in the world some years ago.
In recent years, Buffett has been taken over in net worth terms by some of the younger tech investors we have all come to know, such as Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos.
But Buffett is far from a spent force – in fact, his wealth is on the move up again. According to a report from the Australian Financial Review (AFR) today, Mr Buffett's fortune has surged above the US$100 billion mark in recent weeks.
The primary catalyst for this move is the share price of Berkshire Hathaway rising steadily over that time. As the AFR pointed out, last night (our time) saw the monumentally expensive Berkshire Class A shares surge above US$400,000 for the first time ever (no, that's not a typo) during intra-day trading in the United States.
Buffett reportedly owns a handy 248,734 of these Class A shares. If you're wondering how a share could be so expensive, it's because Berkshire has never initiated a stock split since Buffett took the helm in the mid-1960s. That's the power of compound interest, folks!
Luckily for the vast majority of us who can't afford to fork out 400k on a single share, Berkshire's Class B shares trade at the far more accessible price of US$263.99 at the most recent close. But I digress.
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Berkshire's monster portfolio
Berkshire is a conglomerate. As such, the value of the company as a whole is largely determined by the sum of its parts. And many of the companies Berkshire has a major stake in have been performing very well in recent weeks (sometimes it pays not to own too much tech). These companies include Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), Coca-Cola Co (NYSE: KO), American Express Company (NSE: AXP) and Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC). Berkshire's market capitalisation is now approximately US$608.16 billion.
Berkshire also owns a vast portfolio of entire and/or unlisted businesses like GEICO, Duracell, Dairy Queen and BNSF Railroad Company.
But while Buffett's star has been on the rise, another top billionaire's has been (slightly) dimming. Elon Musk spent a few weeks over the past few months as titleholder of the 'world's richest person'. Musk is the famous (or infamous, depending on your view) CEO of electric vehicle and battery manufacturer Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA).
But according to Forbes' Billionaires List, Musk is firmly back in second place today behind Jeff Bezos. His fortune is currently estimated at US$165.1 billion against Mr Bezos's US$179.6 billion. First world problems!
