Happy Birthday, Warren Buffett! He’s 95 And One Of 36 American Billionaires Over 90

Forbes

America’s billionaires are older than ever, with one in five already in their 80s or 90s. That doesn’t mean they are necessarily slowing down.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/martinadilicosa/2025/08/30/happy-birthday-warren-buffett-hes-95-and-one-of-36-american-billionaires-over-90/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, happy birthday Warren Buffett. He's 95 and one of 36 American billionaires over 90.

00:10Warren Buffett took a seat on stage at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting for the 60th and likely

00:16final time in May. He wore a red tie that matched the two cans of Coca-Cola in front of him,

00:22one cherry and one regular. Buffett has joked that his longevity is tied to his diet of

00:27McDonald's, Coke, and Dairy Queen, all companies in which Berkshire has invested.

00:33While his voice was raspy and he hunched over a bit, the Oracle of Omaha was as sharp and unphased

00:39as ever, answering a question about recent market turmoil. In front of a crowd of some 40,000,

00:45he said, quote, what happened in the last 100 days is really nothing. The day I was born,

00:52the Dow Jones was at 240. That was August 30th, 1930. Between that and the low, it went from 240

00:59to 41. He went on to say that if people worried about whether their stocks went down 15%,

01:06they needed a, quote, different investment philosophy.

01:10Then, at the very end of the four-plus hour-long meeting, he dropped a bomb. Buffett announced that

01:16he'd retire as Berkshire's CEO at the end of the year, nearly six decades to the day from when he

01:21took control of a small, struggling textile company called Berkshire Hathaway. The announcement came

01:27as a surprise to even his key lieutenant, Greg Abel, who was named Buffett's successor in 2021,

01:33but didn't know about his imminent plans. The fact that someone as rich and successful as Buffett,

01:38he's been on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans every year since the first list in 1982,

01:45and is still the 10th richest person on the planet despite having given away more than $64 billion,

01:50chose to work for decades after the average American's retirement age might strike some

01:56as crazy. But there are plenty of other octogenarian and nonogenarian billionaires who,

02:02like Buffett, would rather work until the day they die.

02:05The oldest American billionaire, George Joseph, is still working at $5.5 billion in revenue Mercury

02:12General, the insurance company he founded in the early 1960s.

02:16A flight navigator during World War II, Joseph stepped down as CEO at age 85, but still owns

02:2235% of the publicly traded company, and mans the controls at age 103 as chairman of the publicly

02:29traded firm. He is the only American billionaire over the age of 99.

02:35Media giant Rupert Murdoch, who is 94 years old, stepped down as executive chairman of $8.5 billion

02:42in revenue News Corp almost two years ago, ceding the title to his son Lachlan, but continues to

02:48have a large presence at the company. Altogether, there are a record 36 American billionaires who

02:54are 90 and older. Another 150 are in their 80s, including former Victoria's Secret CEO Les Wexner

03:02and former New York City mayor and Bloomberg co-founder Michael Bloomberg.

03:06It's impressive given that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says the average life expectancy

03:12in the U.S. is 78.4 for all Americans and 75.8 for the nation's men, who dominate the billionaire

03:19ranks.

03:21Overall, only 3.8% of the U.S. population is 80 or older, according to the 2020 census results,

03:28compared to 20% of American billionaires on our list.

03:31Why does a larger percentage of American billionaires seem to live past 80 than the U.S. population

03:37overall? There could be a lot of reasons, including the fact that wealthy people can afford the

03:43best healthcare, personal trainers, and freshest foods. One billionaire who passed away in June

03:50at age 102 was pretty certain why he lived so well for so long. David Murdoch, the longtime majority

03:57shareholder of Dole, one of the world's largest producers of fruits and vegetables, was a strong

04:03advocate of plant-based diets and ate only fruits, including banana and orange peels, vegetables,

04:09and fish, having publicly stated his aim to live to 125.

04:13For full coverage and to see the list of America's 10 oldest billionaires, check out Martina de

04:20La Cosa's piece on Forbes.com.

04:24This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

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