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Berkshire CEO Greg Abel sworn in as U.S. citizen at baseball game
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel is now a US citizen.
Abel, a longtime Iowan who was born in Edmonton, Canada, in 1962, was among about 20 people from 16 countries who attended the Iowa Cubs’ annual naturalization ceremony Thursday night in Des Moines.
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel raises the U.S. flag during a naturalization ceremony hosted by the Iowa Cubs in Des Moines on June 25, 2026.
Iowa Cubs/Michael Hill
In an interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick during the lunch break of Berkshire’s annual meeting last month, Warren Buffett revealed that Abel plans to become an American citizen “soon” and that “becoming an American citizen means as much to him as it has for him to be successful in every other field.”
“It’s not something you can buy anywhere — (lol) — or packaged, right?”
Mr. Abel, who has an estimated net worth of about $1 billion and runs a company with a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion, typically keeps a low profile in public, and although he threw out the first pitch before the game, his role as Berkshire’s CEO was not highlighted at the event.
Greg Abel celebrates by throwing out the first pitch before the game between the Iowa Cubs and Buffalo Bisons on June 25, 2026.
Iowa Cubs/Rocco Caruso
A report on NBC affiliate WHO-TV said only that “former Canadian citizen Greg Abel” threw out the first pitch and that “the ball went home with him, a nice memento of his first day as an American.”
This was the 18th naturalization ceremony hosted by the team, where 533 new citizens were sworn in.
Over the past six years, an additional 5,000 candidates have earned their citizenship in ceremonies held at the ballpark on off-game days, the team said.
Holding his U.S. naturalization certificate, Greg Abel poses with Cubby Bear, the Iowa Cubs mascot, and Judge Stephen Locher of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, who officiated the ceremony.
Iowa Cubs/Rocco Caruso
Iowa Cubs general manager Randy Wiehofer told the WHO that many of the new nationals “have worked really hard, sacrificed a lot (and) taken great risks to leave their hometowns and pursue the American dream that many of us were born into, but not all of us. So even though it’s not our story, I think we can relate to it. It’s an American story.”
Why it’s the right time for Berkshire to finally join the Dow 30
of Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted index, a vestige of its creation in 1896, when it was calculated without the aid of modern computers.
Unlike, S&P500 and Nasdaq Compositeis a market-cap weighted index, so stocks with higher stock prices have more influence in its calculations than stocks with lower stock prices.
That’s what kept Berkshire Hathaway out of the Dow for years. Warren Buffett’s aversion to stock splits especially meant higher stock prices. A sharesare now worth more than $745,000 each, dwarfing the other 29 stocks and effectively turning them into just another Berkshire index.
The floor of the New York Stock Exchange in 1907. The photo was secretly taken with a camera hidden in the photographer’s sleeve.
Library of Congress
Even low-priced ones B stockcurrently $499, once had a much higher price than a typical Dow stock.
However, over the past decade or so, stock splits have declined as “round lot” trading has declined as commissions have been reduced or eliminated, and fractional shares have become widely available.
As a result, the median value of the Dow stock price is approximately $244 for the highest priced component. goldman sachstrading at a once-unthinkable $1,020 per share.
On Monday, Google’s parent company alphabetwith a stock price of $337, will be replaced. verizon communications S&P Dow Jones Indices says that “continued low-priced stocks do not have a material impact on the index,” which is why its stock price is $47.
Andrew Barry agrees with Barron’s thinking. nikeand its $41 stock could be next.
While he acknowledged that it is difficult to predict which companies will be added, he believes Berkshire and its $1 trillion market cap would be a “valuable addition,” noting that “it would be appropriate to add this conglomerate while its chairman and controlling shareholder Warren Buffett, 95, is still alive.”
The problem is that Goldman’s 13% weight means the Dow is already heavily financial, and Berkshire is classified as a financial company.
And while Berkshire’s $499 B-shares are within the range of the Dow, they are still about twice the index’s median and likely larger than all other Dow 30 stocks except Goldman and Goldman. caterpillar ($997).
Buffett and Berkshire on the Internet
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CNBC’s Buffett Archive Highlights
“You Can’t Lose Love” (2003)
Warren Buffett says that love, not money, makes a person successful. He taught me the secret to never running out.
Audience: How do you define success and happiness? Are they related? And how can we achieve them?
Warren Buffett: Well, I tell college students that when you get to my age, if the people you want love you, you’ll be successful.
I mean, you know – if – Charlie and I know some people who have a lot of money and have introductory dinners and have their names carved on buildings, but the truth is, no one loves them.
And, you know, not their families, not the people who named the building after them. That’s sad.
And that, unfortunately, as you know, it’s something that can’t be bought. I mean, Charlie and I have talked many times about if we could buy a million dollars worth of love. It will be much more satisfying than trying to be loved. (laughs)
But that doesn’t work, right? …
But, of course, the good thing about it is that you always get back more than you give.
I mean, I don’t know if it was Oscar Hammerstein or who said this. “A bell isn’t a bell until you ring it. A song isn’t a song until you sing it. Love in your heart doesn’t stay there. Love isn’t love until you let it go.” And basically, you always get more back than you give.
And if you give nothing, you get nothing. It’s very simple…
There is no one I know who has felt or felt anything other than success in the love of the people around them, the people they work with, their family, their neighbors.
I don’t know how people feel knowing that no one loves them, but I can’t believe they feel so good.
It’s very simple. You can’t take away love. If you try to give, you will get back more than you give. And that’s the best thing.
Charlie, what are you talking about? (laughs)
Charlie Munger: Well, you don’t want to look like a California movie executive. It was said that the reason the funeral was so large was because everyone wanted to be sure he was dead. (laughs)
There is also a similar story of a pastor at a funeral saying, “Will someone please stand up and say a good word to the deceased?” And there was a long silence, and finally one man stood up and said, “Well, his brother had it worse,” he said. (laughs) …
Warren Buffett: Most people in this room are going to do very well financially. Most of the college students I talk to intend to do well financially.
And some of them have very few friends, real friends, as they grow older, while others just can’t get enough friends.
And I see it all around me all the time.
berkshire stock watch
BRK.A stock price: $745,140.03
BRK.B stock price: $498.66
BRK.BP/E (TTM): 14.85
Berkshire Market Capitalization: $1,074,089,811,219
Berkshire Cash as of March 31st: $397.4 billion (up 6.5% from December 31st)
Excluding railroad cash and outstanding Treasury bills: $380.2 billion (3.0% increase from Dec. 31)
Berkshire repurchased $234 million of its own stock in the first quarter of 2026.
(All figures are as of the date of publication, unless otherwise noted)
Berkshire’s Top Stock Holdings – June 26, 2026
Berkshire’s top U.S. and Japanese listed stocks by market capitalization, based on the latest closing prices.
Asset holdings are as of March 31, 2026, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s 13th Floor filing dated May 15, 2026. However, the following cases are excluded.
Alphabet includes $10 billion in stock that Berkshire has agreed to buy directly from the company, as announced on June 1, 2026. Berkshire has not yet officially disclosed whether the deal has been completed. Entries are a combination of Class A and Class C Alphabet shares. The market price is the weighted average of the prices of the two classes. Mitsubishi data is as of April 30, 2026.
A complete list of holdings and current market value is available on CNBC.com’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
Question or comment
If you have any questions or comments about the newsletter, please send them to alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, we do not forward questions or comments to Mr. Buffett himself.)
If you haven’t subscribed to this newsletter yet, you can sign up here.
I also highly recommend Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders. It’s collected here on Berkshire’s website.
— Alex Crippen, Warren Buffett Watch Editor
