Warren Buffett is a household name for all investors. The ‘Oracle of Omaha,' as he is known, has turned Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) from a small textile operation into an industrial powerhouse that owns railroad Burlington Northern and insurance player Geico. Buffett is also a legendary stock picker, getting in early on leading companies such as Coca-Cola (KO), Apple (AAPL), and American Express (AXP). In the process of all this dealmaking, Buffett has amassed a net worth of about $140 billion. What many investors forget is that Buffett is also a devoted father of three. One of his children is Howard Buffett, a current board member of Berkshire Hathaway who is likely to succeed his father as chairman. Howard Buffett is a long-time farmer and philanthropist, leaving the stock-picking to his legendary father. Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi talks with Howard G. Buffett chairman and CEO Howard Buffett about why he is giving money to war-torn Ukraine and how to make a difference in today's scary world.

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Video Transcript

Hey there, my investing, curious friends.

Welcome to opening bid.

I'm Brian Sozzi.

Yahoo Finance's executive editor.

Thank you for joining us either on youtube, Yahoo Finance, Spotify, iheartmedia, Pandora or Amazon Music.

Lots of places for us.

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And hot takes to me on X at Brian Sozzi and at Yahoo Finance, we are here to help and listen to you.

Now, let's make some money and get a lot smarter.

Joining us now is a very, very, very special guest.

Howard Buffett, uh chairman and CEO of the Howard G Buffett Foundation.

Um Mr Buffett, it's a real honor to welcome you to uh opening bid.

We appreciate you taking some time.

Thank you very much.

Glad to be here with you, Brian.

I had to, I had to dress up for you.

I had to do the tie.

Normally I'm doing these things and maybe a hoodie and a t-shirt.

But for, for Howard Buffett, I'm, I'm putting on the tie and dusting off the jacket.

So thank you.

I, I didn't comfortable if you took the tie off, maybe maybe midway through.

But I will also have to contain my uh to not ask you necessarily maybe later about stocks and investing in Burlington Northern trains.

We'll put that.

We'll table that for, for a minute and talk to us.

Really?

Why you're here and you're donating hundreds of millions of dollars to Ukraine.

Where is this money going?

And what is motivating you at this point to make those donations?

Well, so historically, our foundation is focused primarily on food security and conflict mitigation.

So, uh when Russia uh invaded Ukraine, uh when the full scale invasion occurred in, in 2022 we knew from our work in Africa, especially that we would see some uh uh impact of that in terms of food security.

So I visited Ukraine in April of 2022.

Uh I've been there once before in 1990 February, uh January of 1991 it was still part of the Soviet Union.

So this is my first trip back and, you know, we could see the impact on global food security.

We could see the impact on uh food security in Ukraine.

So we started getting engaged and uh you know, it was a, it was a fast learning curve because it's not an area we'd worked before.

And what I is it the how much first, I guess, how much have you put to work there?

And this year overall, what is that overall?

Um those givings look like?

So, we've spent a little over $600 million at this point and uh we expect we'll probably go over 800 million by the end of the year.

And, you know, our goal has been to focus uh on about five primary areas, obviously the food security.

But we've, we've also focused on uh agricultural production.

We've focused on um war crimes and crimes against humanity, investigation, documentation.

Uh They, we have done some things on critical infrastructure is not what we typically have done.

But, but that's one of the things we are doing uh because they're in a war.

So things happen and they, and, and our, our biggest goal really is to fill the gap.

So, for instance, uh oh, I think it was maybe last uh late last week.

Um They uh Harkey was hit again, Kev was hit just over and over.

You know, they're on, they're in the east part.

Uh They're only Kharkiv City is only about 25 miles from the Russian border and they were hit and they took out uh a publishing business that produces uh almost 50% of the textbooks in the country.

And so I got calls from um different people saying, you know, can you help get them back up and going?

So we're looking at that.

I mean, that's not something uh the day before it happened, we weren't thinking about that and now we are thinking about how do we do that?

How do we help get it done.

So, we're trying to be responsive to, uh, as things happen.

Uh, and, and, and some of those things are things we typically wouldn't do.

I mean, we have done, we've helped the railroad rebuild bridges.

We've, um, you know, uh, gone in and built a school kitchen so the kids can stay in school and in the buildings and get fed.

So we've done a lot of different things that, that typically we would do.

But it's, uh it's, it's been a fast, uh, we've had to learn quickly.

We, it's, it's been a learning curve.

Uh $800 million.

That's, um that's a significant amount.

Is, is that a number you're looking at continuing in 2025?

Are you able to even look out that far?

No, we look out that far and it's a good question because I think, you know, we, we spent about 300 million, uh um, you know, this year or we will, that's, that's, we're projected to do that.

And I think that, um, we'll see if we can cut it back a little bit next year to maybe 250 or something.

And we, we don't, we don't operate early by budgets, like probably a lot of foundations do because we don't know what's gonna happen in the world.

We try to respond to it and, and uh I, I kind of grew up, you know, with parents that believed in flexibility and responsiveness and, and so that's kind of how we run the foundation.

So we, we aren't, we aren't real siloed.

I mean, we, we can move quickly.

I remember when we decided we were going to start doing something in Ukraine.

You know, we, we, uh, we run a pretty lean staff and so we got the program staff on, I said you guys have a real job, but today now you got another job And so, you know, we just piled on and we've got an incredible team.

I mean, they took it on and, and they believe in what they're doing.

And we have added uh one staff ever that uh speaks Ukrainian and, and as you know, is helpful there, but we, we run a pretty lean show.

I mean, we, if you look at our, uh our contributions last year for foundation, a little over $500 million total and our overhead was just over 1% of contributions.

Uh That's a good thing in some ways.

It's, it's sometimes it puts a lot of stress on people because we don't have everybody we should have is having a small staff just a secret to success.

Of course, now I'm thinking back to how your, your dad runs that headquarters at, at Berkshire.

I, you just get things done faster, right?

Yeah, I mean, I'm sure it's, it's a bit uh inherited in terms of how we look at it.

Um, but, you know, managing people is, is, is the most difficult part of doing anything to be honest with you.

And so, uh, you know, we just try to keep a small staff be because we, we, but it's really important to have the best people you can get.

And so, you know, we, we really try to focus on, on having people that are, uh, very smart, uh, have good jobs, they're innovative, they adjust well, uh, because we change what we do.

Um We, we're trying to, you know, look at what are some of the biggest problems that, that we can help work on in the world and, and that changes.

I mean, if you look at what we were doing five years ago, we were spending significant amount of money in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

And right now we're not doing much work there at all.

I mean, we could in the future.

So our staff have to really be able to adjust and, and, and learn quickly and, and we have a great staff and they do that.

But yeah, sometimes we're a little too lean.

I knew you were.

I know you've been a farmer for, for really uh decades but I went and I Yahoo searched.

Yes, a name drop for Yahoo, a Yahoo search and there's just these great videos you've got there plowing your own land.

Um Hold on.

I don't, I don't plow you don't.

I know just, just like a cruise ship.

Is uh not a boat, it's a ship.

Yeah, it's duly noted.

Ok.

So using that expertise, what is the state of Ukraine's farmland?

I mean, because as we all know, when the war first started prices for wheat, corn, barley, everything went through the roof because Ukraine is known as the world's breadbasket.

You know, from your vantage point, how damaged is it at this point?

And how long will it take to, to improve uh whenever it might improve?

So there's a whole number of issues, as you can imagine in any business.

So first of all, you know, you have serious interruptions in, in the uh uh the whole the whole chain in terms of uh getting inputs into the country, getting them distributed out to the farmers and then getting the farmer, the farmers have a real problem right now, getting their grains sold and getting it moved uh to where they, they are not selling below the cost of production, the Black Sea.

Uh The interruption of the Black Sea exports was a huge uh impediment to Ukraine.

And um so I would say that right now they're probably honestly uh producing it not much more than 5 65% of where they would have been producing uh pre-war.

And a lot of that is because Russia occupied almost 20% of Ukrainian land.

Most of that 20% of the land that they own are some of the best soils in the world.

And so if you look at last year as an example, uh 28% of the wheat that was produced in Ukraine was produced in Russian occupied areas.

So it's really ironic uh in, in the sense that you have Russia forcing Ukrainian farmers to produce in occupied areas and then they're using that production to fund the war efforts against Ukraine.

So, um I think it's, it's a long road ahead for agriculture in Ukraine.

I mean, they have, uh the size of Colorado is uh got to get surveyed for land mines and unexploded ordinances.

That's a slow process.

That's something we're working on.

We're doing a lot of work in the mining area.

We're trying to figure out how to make it more efficient, um uh more effective and safe way to demine because agricultural lands are gonna take quite a bit of bit of time.

So it's, it's a, it's a, um it's a little overwhelming when you think about what has to take place to get everything back into order.

But, you know, the truth is first, Ukraine's got to win the war.

Are you, are you dismayed that, you know, giving aid to Ukraine has become so political.

Uh this is just from the outside looking in giving them aid is of course good from a humanitarian standpoint, but also from a business standpoint, you know, maybe helping to rebuild farmlands, helps bring inflation down in this country.

Well, I, you know, the world is pretty interrelated today.

So if you look at our assistance to Ukraine, I, I think I would break out a couple of pieces that are worth talking about.

Number one people who are, well, we're sending all this money to Ukraine.

We're not sending the money to Ukraine.

I mean, we are sending some, but the majority of that package that was passed a month or so ago.

Um, most of that money goes to us, companies, us businesses producing ammunition, weapons, uh, items that are going to get shipped to Ukraine.

So it is supporting us jobs all across the country.

And I think that's one big misconception is that people think, well, we're just sending money to Ukraine and that's not what we're doing in our own case.

We do something similar.

So we have, uh either we either find a way to work with a 501 C three which has to meet all the IRS US regulations with transparency, accountability, all those things.

And then we do a lot of work in kind.

So we've, we've provided $50 million for the farm equipment, all of that was in kind.

So we never wrote a check into Ukraine to pay for anything for that.

And that just protects us also because it's a legitimate concern about the corruption.

But I do think they're working very hard on addressing that.

Uh, and they're working hard on it in the middle of a war as well.

But I think if you look at the economic part of it, um, the NATO countries are over 30% of our international trade.

So if you're, uh, ends up in a war with Russia, that has a huge economic impact on us now, no one can predict exactly what the stock market does or exactly what interest rates do or, or whatever.

But it can't be good.

I mean, you can't take a 30% trading block of your country and feel that, uh you know, see that have a negative impact and feel that that's not gonna trickle down in a big way back home.

Um And from a security standpoint, if, if we, if we abandon in NATO, which we can't do, I mean, if, if someone's contemplating doing that and you walk away from our biggest security block, two things are going to happen.

One's economic, they're going to look to China, they're going to look to Asia, they're, they're going to look somewhere else trading block.

We can't afford to have that happen.

But then also from a security standpoint, we can't afford to be standing alone in the future.

So, I mean, we are, whether we like it or not, whether we want to be in the position, we are, we are in the position and we have to stand with Europe both as a trading partner and security partner.

Mr Buffett hold that thought we have to, we're going to do a quick break.

Don't go anywhere.

We'll be right back on opening bid after the short break.

All right, Mr Buffet.

Good to uh good to reconnect with you here.

Um Really just going through how you're putting your capital work uh in, in, in Ukraine, you know, from an inflation standpoint.

I mean, given your, your farming background, I won't get into the to the plow versus the till I will, I will leave that.

I will leave that be for a second.

What help us understand why, why is inflation still so high?

And from your vantage point, literally being on the ground, is there any relief coming to food prices in this country?

Well, I, you know, I, I'm not a predictor of anything because who knows?

You know, but, but III I will say that um with the disruptions that we've seen uh because of the war in Ukraine, which, which doesn't, it's not just Ukraine production, it's, it's uh you know, Russia is a huge supplier of fertilizer.

Um And then, you know, we have enough sanctions on them and some work, some don't work, but some work better than others.

But at the end of the day that affects what they're, what they're shipping out of their country in terms of grain.

So, you know, if you're asking me, do I think that, you know, we're going to see food prices decrease any time soon.

My answer would be, I doubt it.

But uh you know, every time you predict, I mean, Brian, you know, this because you're kind of in the business of this.

You know, every time you no comment, no comment, no comment, maybe that's what I should say.

I have to go.

I think we all, I think the answer here is we should all go to a Charlie Munger favorite.

Costco, Costco, great place to save money, get things in bulk and just pack out your refrigerator.

I mean, that's just probably the end result here.

Um One thing I was reminded of was that assuming the board vote you in, I was just going to say they vote you in.

You're the next chairman at some point, whenever that might be a Berkshire Hathaway, let's assume that happens.

How does your life, how does your life change?

Of course, you've been on the board for some time of Berkshire.

But how does your day to day change from what it might be now?

Well, it changes, it changes a lot in terms of uh probably where I travel to begin with because I, I travel internationally all the time.

Uh You know, I've been to 100 and 5400 and 55 countries or something and I, I, I'm, I'm on the road a lot.

Uh I've been in Ukraine five times uh in 2022 and same thing five times in 2023 and probably four or five times this year.

So, you know, those are trips I won't make.

Uh, and, and I've been in Colombia this year.

Those are trips I won't make.

Um, I will, I will need to keep in mind that I just, uh, I need to be around to do my job and, and, and my responsibility.

So I think, you know, the, the, the risk level of what I do in my life today probably gets decreased.

You know, my, if you look at what I've done throughout my life, I, every 7 to 10 years I've kinda recreated what career I'm in.

I mean, like, you know, be, be because I'm curious, uh II I wanna learn new things.

Um and I love doing new things and so, you know, when the time comes, uh my life will change some and, and uh you know, I won't be running the company.

I was a non-executive chairman.

So, you know, my job will be support Greg in every way that I can.

But, but I won't, um you know, I, I will change some of what I do uh out of the fact that both my brother and sister and I will have a huge charitable trust that we're responsible for.

Uh and also, um my sister and I being on the Berkshire board will have that responsibility.

So I, I think, you know, I refocus a little bit, maybe that's the way to put it as part of that refocus, I imagine.

So, is it a family trip to Burlington Northern and, and you're watching railroads?

I mean, is that, is that what it looks like?

Well, maybe I'll just spend more time riding the railroad.

I don't know if they'll let me, but, uh, uh, trains are pretty fun.

Yeah, I could, I could tell, I, I'm very jealous of the Burlington Northern, uh, train set behind you.

Uh, that is some cool stuff.

So, are you, would you consider yourself, you know, what is the chairman of a Berkshire look like?

Uh you know, what is, you know, what are some of the specifics to that role?

You think?

You, you won't get me talk about that.

Um I'm not gonna predict that.

I, you know, uh my dad's chairman and CEO today and, and as you know, he spends seven hours every year at the annual meeting, answering questions.

And, uh you know, I, I learned a long time ago when I was a director of other uh other companies that it's better to let management talk about it.

And it's also better not predict what the future is because you don't know.

I mean, a lot of things change, a lot of things change you.

I think it's been said that you will be the guardian of Berkshire's culture for the people that haven't seen it from your perspective.

What is that culture like?

What, why does this, why does it, why does Berkshire just work?

Well, I mean, you know, it, it, it's interesting because my dad's a lot more simple in terms of the kind of person he is what he does.

I mean, he's very sophisticated in terms of business.

Don't get me wrong.

But, but, um, you know, he, he's, uh, he, he, none of his own yachts, none of us have, you know, vacation houses in France, none of us.

I mean, we, I, I didn't grow up that way.

That isn't how he lives.

Uh So, you know, it's really pretty simple and, and so that, that the way he is personally just comes through in Berkshire.

And so he is somebody who uh believes in integrity is number one.

you treat people fairly, um, you don't do a deal with a bad guy because it's ever gonna turn out, right?

So you try to pick your partners uh selectively and, and uh be smart about it.

And so, you know, I mean, he just, it's not complicated.

I mean, it's really, no, you're being, no, it is.

It's, it's complicated.

I mean, you know, people, but Brian people make things more complicated than they need to be.

They really do.

And, you know, Birger has got a great board, they got great management.

Uh Greg and a Jet are phenomenal.

Um And, and so, you know, it, it's a great company and people can always find reasons they don't like a company or they don't like what management is doing, you know, when I worked at Ad MI I did something one time.

I thought I was gonna probably get fired.

But, but I, I, uh I, I had investor relations uh as one of my responsibilities and I have to tell you I didn't like it, but it's not a fun job.

It's not a fun job.

Who wants to talk to Wall Street?

He wants to talk to Wall Street.

No, but yeah, a lot of people are mad at you all.

So, you know, I had this guy call me.

He would call me.

I don't know how many times, you know, uh every couple of weeks and, and uh he was just mad about something and, you know, ad m did this wrong and he did that wrong.

And so I, I said to him, I said, look, I said, just take today's price and I'll pay a 10% premium.

Sell me your stock, I'll buy it personally and then go buy something you like.

You know, then, you know, so I never heard from him again.

I never had to buy stock but I wanted, and I told Boyd what I did, he says that's a great idea.

And I said, yeah, the problem is I can't afford to do that with everybody that calls me.

So I, I need a bigger piggy bank.

But, you know, I mean, people, uh you know, they, they, sometimes they expect things that, that, that aren't reasonable.

Sometimes they just get mad over things that, I mean, people complicate things just by the nature of, of, uh, of, of how they behave.

And, and uh Berkshire's culture is pretty simple, you know, I mean, you, uh, you do what you say you're gonna do and you do it when you say you're gonna do it and, and you're honest about it, you make mistakes and you accept responsibility for those mistakes and, and I think anybody runs a business like that.

Uh and there's plenty of businesses that are like that but you know, that, that is we try to run our foundation that way.

I mean, like, you know, it, it's really not that complicated.

Could Berkshire ever be replicated?

I, I see so many young adults they want to create the next great A I company or social media platform, but I don't know why don't they try to take a page out of Warren Buffett and try to create something lasting and durable and with competitive advantages like a Berkshire.

I mean, if, if I wanted to today, I mean, could I try to do something like that?

I think it would be hard.

But I mean, you know, I, I don't, and, and I kind of follow the same rule in my personal life, which is, you know, how you just describe it.

I mean, I, I own a certain amount of stocks, I don't buy and trade.

I mean, I probably haven't traded a stock for, I mean, years, you know, I, I just, I just, I, you know, I, I, if you can be reasonably smart about what you buy and then, you know, you hold it and look at the appreciation that we, we've had in the stock market.

You know, and of course, we'll have some adjustment at some point and everybody gets nervous and then it will come back.

But, you know, you're, you're, you're in a country that uh is really um we may not be in the top in every category if you go down and you look at things and analytically.

But in terms of the opportunity people have in this country to go out and uh be entrepreneurs, be innovators, uh take risks um that still exists today just like it did 20 or 30 years ago.

I mean, we live in an amazing country that way.

I mean, we, we are, we, we are in a scary period in terms of where we are politically uh in, in terms of how polarized things are.

But um you know, the economy continues to move, move on and, and I think we're very fortunate to be in a country that we are in with the remaining time I have left.

I'm gonna pull a page out of the, the investor relations team.

I'm gonna lump two questions into one.

What is the best life and investing advice that you have received from, from your dad for as long as you've been on this planet.

Well, that, that's easy.

Just, you know, uh read the intelligent investor because that is your middle name is Graham.

Your middle name is Graham.

Yes.

Read that book.

Good book.

You know, buy the best thing you can and hold on to it.

It's that simple.

I, I keep telling you, Brian, it's not complicated.

No, I mean, you know what, maybe, maybe it's not.

Well, I, um, we're gonna have to leave it there.

Um Mr Buffett, but I, I hope a uh to meet you in person at some point.

I think what you guys do um is just phenomenal.

And number two, what your dad has meant to this Yahoo finance platform over the past 10 years has been tremendous and I, I want to personally say that, I mean, he has the following.

He has on our platform uh with our community is, is just absolutely off the charts.

So it's a real honor to welcome you um to Yao Finance.

Really appreciate it.

I'm glad to be here.

I'm glad I could make it.

And again, that's very uh special guest.

Uh Howard Buffett, chairman and CEO of the Howard G Buffett Foundation on the latest edition of opening bid.