Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett (born 1930) built Berkshire Hathaway into a trillion-dollar conglomerate over six decades and is widely regarded as the greatest investor of the modern era. When the world’s most trusted allocator of capital conspicuously declines to bless a technology boom, people notice — and on AI, Buffett has repeatedly reached for the darkest analogy available.

The nuclear genie

At Berkshire’s May 2024 annual meeting in Omaha, Buffett said the development of AI reminded him of the atomic bomb: “We let a genie out of the bottle when we developed nuclear weapons,” he told shareholders, adding that AI is “part way out of the bottle” and that he had no advice on how the world should handle it. He recounted seeing an AI-generated deepfake of himself convincing enough that it could have fooled him into sending money overseas, and warned that scamming, supercharged by AI, could become the growth industry of all time. Admitting he doesn’t understand the technology deeply, he said it has enormous potential for both good and harm.

Buffett’s skepticism echoed that of his late partner Charlie Munger, who dismissed the AI frenzy as overhyped before his death in 2023. There is irony in the position: Berkshire’s largest stock holding for years was Apple, and its portfolio profits handsomely from the AI-driven market rally. Buffett announced in May 2025 that he would hand the CEO role to Greg Abel at year’s end, closing an era — without ever endorsing the technology that defined its final chapter.

Unlike many AI critics, Buffett issued no policy demands and joined no letters; his warning is that of an underwriter who cannot price the risk. “I don’t know how to evaluate it,” has been his consistent refrain — a conspicuous abstention from the most famous voice in capitalism.