Warren Buffett has spent nearly nine decades building an investing empire. But he mostly attributes his massive success to one thing: luck.
The Berkshire Hathaway chairman, whose net worth now sits at roughly $147 billion, told CNBC in an interview published Wednesday that chance, not just skill, has been a defining force behind his career.
“Out of eight billion people, I may be one of the 10 luckiest in the world,” Buffett said.
Ahead of his 96th birthday next month, Buffett pointed to his health and longevity as examples of that good fortune. “I’m losing marbles at this point. I accumulated marbles for a longer time than I deserved.” he said. “That’s just a matter of luck.”
The “Oracle of Omaha” has frequently argued that structural advantages matter as much as talent. In a 2024 letter to Berkshire shareholders, Buffett credited his success in part to being born in the U.S., as well as to the societal advantages of being a white male.
“So favored by my male status, very early on I had confidence that I would become rich,” he wrote.
The investor has previously pointed to what he calls the “ovarian lottery”—a phrase he used in a 1997 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting—to describe how the circumstances of one’s birth can outweigh individual effort, with hard work and ambition playing secondary roles.
Buffett’s early exposure to investing also played a pivotal role. His father, Howard Homan Buffett, was a stockbroker who introduced him to the stock market at a young age. At just 11, Buffett purchased his first stock, buying three shares of Cities Service at $38 each.
“Fortunately I got exposed, partly accidentally, to what I liked to do very early on, and that was just an accident,” Buffett told CNBC. “If my father had been a plumber, I would not have.”
Buffett currently ranks as the world’s 10th-richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway late last year but remains actively involved. After a decades-long career that began with earning his first million at age 32, Buffett tapped Vice Chairman Greg Abelas his successor.
The end of a $47 billion partnership
One of the wealthiest people in the world, Buffett has long committed to giving his fortune away.
In 2010, Buffett signed The Giving Pledge, a promise to dedicate 99% of his net worth to the “health and welfare of others.” On Tuesday, he announced the beneficiaries of his annual stock giveaway for 2026, but notably left out one longtime recipient: the Gates Foundation.
Since 2006, Buffett had poured over $47 billion into the charity founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, making it the largest recipient of his giving for nearly two decades. Its stunning omission this year marks the end of one of the greatest philanthropic relationships in history. Instead, Buffett is directing the gifts to four charities associated with or run by his family.
The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his late first wife, will receive 9 million Class B shares, and the Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and the NoVo Foundation will each be gifted 1 million shares.
Buffett said he told Gates about three weeks ago that he would not be making more donations to the Microsoft founder’s foundation. The move follows a Wall Street Journal report last month about Buffett’s decision to pause his annual gift to the Gates Foundation pending a review of Gates’s ties to disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“While it’s distasteful, while he made mistakes, I made mistakes in hiring all kinds of people or choosing friends, and then finding out later that they … weren’t what I thought they were,” Buffett said. “I found nothing in there that was beyond what I could picture myself doing.” He added: “No one bats a thousand in the business of choosing people.”
In 2024, Buffett announced his plans to cut off donations to the Gates Foundation after his death so his children could decide how to distribute the rest of his fortune. Last week, he accelerated that timeline, saying he now wants his wealth to be shared within eight years.
“My children are unfortunately growing older. I have every hope that the three of them are able to carry out the disposal of my shares by December 31, 2034,” he wrote in a press release.
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