Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company with a wide array of subsidiaries engaged in diverse activities. The firm's core business segment is insurance, run primarily through Geico, Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group, and Berkshire Hathaway Primary Group. Berkshire has used the excess cash thrown off from these and its other operations over the years to acquire Burlington Northern Santa Fe (railroad), Berkshire Hathaway Energy (utilities and energy distributors), and the companies that make up its manufacturing, service, and retailing operations (which include five of Berkshire's largest noninsurance pretax earnings generators: Precision Castparts, Lubrizol, Clayton Homes, Marmon, and IMC/ISCAR). The conglomerate is unique in that it is run on a completely decentralized basis.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd., headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan, was founded in 1987 and pioneered the pure-play foundry or 'merchant fab' model. The company serves both integrated semiconductor producers who outsource a portion of their production as well as 'fabless' semiconductor producers who outsource all manufacturing. Taiwan Semi serves over 500 semiconductor customers, producing more than 11,500 distinct products while providing a broad range of advanced, specialty, and advanced packaging technologies.

Costco operates 897 stores, for paying members, averaging 147,000 square feet each. Fees from the company's cardholders provided about 2% of its $250 billion in total FY24 revenue. Based in Issaquah, Washington, the company will end 2024 with 617 stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, 109 stores in Canada, 41 in Mexico, 29 in the United Kingdom, 36 in Japan, 14 in Taiwan, 19 in Korea, 15 in Australia, five in Spain, one in Iceland, one in New Zealand, and one in Sweden, two in France, and seven in China. About 40% of sales are sundries (including candy, alcohol and tobacco); 14% fresh food; 26% non-food including hard-lines (such as electronics and appliances) and soft-lines (including apparel and jewelry); and 20% other ancillary businesses, including gas stations, pharmacy, optical, hearing aids and printing. International stores represent about 27% of total sales and 34% of operating income. At the end of FY24, Costco had approximately 131 million square feet of floor space. Online sales represent approximately 7%, and gas stations represent about 13% of company sales. The company's fiscal year ends on the Sunday closest to August 31. FY23 was a 53-week year. The company's fiscal calendar has 12 weeks in each of the first three quarters and 16 weeks in 4Q.

Costco operates a membership-based, no-frills retail model, predicated on offering a select product assortment in bulk quantities at bargain prices. The firm avoids maintaining costly product displays by keeping inventory on pallets and limits distribution expenses by storing its inventory at point of sale in the warehouse. Given Costco’s frugal cost structure, the firm is able to price its merchandise below competing retailers, driving high sales volume per warehouse and allowing the retailer to generate strong profits on thin margins. Costco operates over 600 warehouses in the United States and boasts over 60% market share in the domestic warehouse club industry. Internationally, Costco operates another 280 warehouses, primarily in markets such as Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the UK.