I just got back from Omaha, Nebraska, from my second Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting. The original plan was to land Thursday so I could spend all of Friday roaming the talks and the famous ecosystem that builds up around the event. Saturday would bring the main course —the shareholders meeting— followed by one more conference in the afternoon, and then the traditional Panamanian dinner at Gorat’s.
It didn’t go exactly as planned. A visa hiccup forced me to push back my flight, and between delays I ended up arriving Friday afternoon. Goodbye to Friday’s talks. People told me they were excellent, and that stung, because the thing I most wanted to confirm this year was whether the parallel ecosystem —the side conferences, the small groups, the investor meet-ups— was still alive. From what I heard and saw afterward: yes, it still has energy.
A hotel with a privileged view
I stayed at the Kimpton Cottonwood, on the famous Farnam Street. As it turns out, Warren Buffett’s offices are right next door, in Blackstone Plaza —the historic Kiewit Plaza, home to Berkshire Hathaway since 1962, which was renamed after it sold in 2019. Buffett’s house is on that same street, five minutes away. There’s a reason Shane Parrish’s excellent podcast is called Farnam Street: he devoted it to learning and writing about the wisdom of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, and named it after the street where the office sits.
Celebrities gathered at the Kimpton all weekend. One night there was a private Berkshire event in the lobby, and judging by the number of suited bodyguards outside, we figured Buffett was inside. Another day, right at the entrance, I had Bill Murray —yes, the actor— next to me; turns out he’s been a Berkshire shareholder since the 70s. And to top it off, Li Lu, the “Warren Buffett of China,” was hosting a private event on the 8th floor. Three of us Panamanians tried to sneak in, but we got stopped at the door: invitation only. For those who don’t know him, Li Lu is the only person Charlie Munger ever trusted to manage his personal money.
The Greg Abel era: less charisma, more operations
Saturday was, in a word, transition. Greg Abel led his first meeting as CEO, with Buffett (95) sitting in the audience for the first time in 60 years. The play looks a lot like Apple’s when Tim Cook replaced Steve Jobs: when the founder-legend steps away, the new CEO elevates the executive bench to show the depth of management and prove the company is bigger than any one person.
Last year Buffett was very general —he barely talked about the business; it was all life wisdom, anecdotes, philosophy. This year, with Greg, the tone flipped 180°:
- Metrics and rankings, no filter. BNSF moved from 5th to 4th among the six Class I railroads. Operating margin rose 250 basis points in 2025. Union Pacific, the leader, sits at 39.5%. Clear gap, clear plan. Warren probably would have been too shy to talk that way about an asset he owns in public; Greg said it without blinking.
- In-house technology. The mantra: be builders of technology, not buyers. They moved GEICO’s tech lead into a senior role at Berkshire Hathaway Energy and BNSF to replicate the playbook.
- “Narrow AI.” Greg hates the bare term “AI.” Three principles: a human always in the loop, reproducibility as a safeguard, and AI that is additive to the business (no “AI for AI’s sake”).
- They brought the general managers of GEICO, BNSF and NetJets/Consumer Products on stage. For the first time we saw those operators live, defending their businesses.
Does Greg have Warren’s charisma? No. And nobody expects him to: he’s an operator, not a comedian. And I think that’s the right call: if you’re not charismatic, you’d better teach people how you think as a business. The Q&A reflected it too. Buffett used to get questions like “what would you do if you could spend one more day with Charlie Munger?” Nobody asks Greg that: they ask him about AI, insurance succession, autonomous trucking, decentralization, tariffs. It’s much more about the business. In a way, you come away understanding the company better this year.
The tribute to Buffett —and the reality
The most moving part of the day: they officially raised Warren’s “jersey” —number 60, for his 60 years as CEO— to the rafters of the CHI Health Center, next to Charlie Munger’s. The arena erupted. Then Warren took the mic and, speaking about Greg, said: “He’s doing everything I did, and a little more, and he’s doing it better in every case.” 100% Buffett.
Warren went back to the Apple story —the $35 billion they invested ten years ago turned into $185 billion pre-tax, “and I didn’t have to do a damn thing”— and used the moment to recognize Tim Cook (also stepping down), who was in the audience. Later Becky Quick interviewed him live and he dropped lines that are already classics: “the market is a church with a casino next door” and “the best time to buy is when nobody answers the phone.”
Throughout the day, Warren drew the parallel more than once between himself and Steve Jobs, and between Greg Abel and Tim Cook: the visionary who creates, the operator who scales. I’m not the one making the comparison —he made it himself, from the stage.
But I’ll be honest with you: Buffett made me sad. He looks very old. When he speaks he struggles to modulate, struggles to laugh, and there are moments you can’t fully understand him. He doesn’t have much time left, and that brings me to the elephant in the room.
What happens the day Buffett is gone?
This year the energy was clearly lower. My eyeball estimate: 30-40% fewer attendees than last year (the press put it around 25,000, versus 40,000 in 2025). The exhibit hall was quieter at the register. And the question that haunts me is: what happens the year Warren isn’t there?
You can already see the moves to fill the vacuum, and it’s clear there will be competition to be the gathering place for value investors next year:
- Tom Gayner (Markel) wants to build a whole weekend like Berkshire’s.
- Bill Ackman said he’ll be much more active on social media and at public conferences, partly to promote his new funds.
Will any of them come close to Buffett? I doubt it. Warren combines something almost impossible to replicate: a six-decade track record, a legendary communicator, and a cultural figure beyond finance. But a power vacuum is clearly forming in the symbolic leadership of value investing, and several people will try to grab the baton. My bet: there won’t be a single successor, but a fragmentation —each great investor with their own “meeting” in a different town.
The after-party: Kanbrick and the Panamanian dinner
Walking out of the main meeting, I went to the exhibit hall for my annual shopping: Brooks sneakers (thanks, Dan Sheridan), a coffee mug, a signed baseball. It’s one of the nicest spaces of the weekend: you walk among Berkshire’s brands, discovering products and services you’d otherwise never see.
Then I had the good fortune of getting into a very good session by Kanbrick, the firm built by Tracy Britt Cool (former financial assistant to Buffett, former CEO of Pampered Chef) and her partner Brian Humphrey. What they’re doing is brilliant: a “Berkshire for smaller companies” —a long-term home, patient capital, 10+ year holds, conservative leverage (~2.5-3x, versus 4-6x for traditional PE), an identical philosophy at a more manageable scale. Their thesis: the world didn’t need another middle-market PE shop; it needed a long-term home with operator DNA.
Three ideas I took home and applied straight to Porta Norte:
- The compounding equation. 20% a year for 20 years turns into ~38x. That’s the math any long-term builder should have written on the wall. In solarpunk real estate with a 50-year horizon, that discipline is our competitive advantage.
- The 4 Ms to evaluate counterparties (developers, institutions, businesses entering Porta Norte): Market, Moat, Management, More potential. “More potential” is their personal version of the margin of safety: not in price, but in what you can co-create with the partner.
- Patience compounds. Tracy and Brian have spent five years investing in their community of CEOs (~4,000 people), and two of their portfolio companies came out of it. The lesson: build community before you need the deal flow. It applies directly to how we cultivate relationships with investors, residents and operators at Porta Norte.
Then, at night, the traditional dinner at Gorat’s, the steakhouse Buffett made famous. We were about 12-14 Panamanians at the table (some had already left by the time I took the photo), and that’s a high number for any conference in the United States: the trip from Panama takes at least 12-14 hours with layovers, almost as long as flying to Madrid. The passion it takes to make this trip every year is high, and it says something about the kind of people who do it.
The next day I flew back to Panama early. I still regret missing Friday’s talks, but Saturday —even with the lower energy— was worth every hour in the air.
Reflection
It’s my second year going, and I increasingly see this trip as investing practice, not financial tourism. Annual meetings are a powerful way to:
- Get to know the companies you’re invested in better, and decide whether to add or trim your exposure.
- Watch management: see their faces, hear how they think, judge how they’re aging (literally and figuratively).
- Recharge your passion by surrounding yourself with people who care about these things. Let’s be honest: very few people in the world know —or want— to talk about combined ratios, capital allocation and moats in depth.
When you’re in a room with thousands of people who flew 12-14 hours to hear a CEO talk about the 10-Q, you realize something: there’s a tribe that thinks this way, and surrounding yourself with them makes you a better investor. More than any book or course.
I’m left wanting to go to other meetings —Markel, Constellation Software, Fairfax, maybe. If you want to learn to think like a long-term owner, events like these are the best education there is.
See you next year, Omaha. I hope Warren is still there.
And what do I think about BRK?
People ask me this a lot, so I’ll cut to it. Today BRK-A is around $750,000 and BRK-B around $500. It depends on what you’re after and the price you pay, but my read is this: Berkshire is fairly valued and the S&P 500 is, to me, overvalued. That’s why right now I like Berkshire quite a bit more than the index.
Don’t expect high returns over the medium term —I’d aim for something like 6% a year. I see it as almost as safe as a T-Bill, but with better yield: country diversification, a fortress balance sheet, and a common-sense discount. Very conservative.
That’s why I keep investing in it alongside my parents. For my personal portfolio I hold a position, but these days I prefer less conservative things with a better expected return. Different horses for different courses.
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