who is the oracle of omaha 
the oracle of omaha is a nickname for warren buffett who is arguably one of the greatest investors of all time buffett is the chair and ceo of berkshire hathaway a company that he became the controlling shareholder of in the mid 1960s he is called the oracle of omaha because the investment community very closely follows his investment picks and comments on the market and he lives and works in omaha nebraska 1alison czinkota investopediaunderstanding the oracle of omahawarren buffett is one of the richest men in the world he built his fortune using a simple yet powerful investment strategy his investments are long term positions accomplished by the purchase of fundamentally sound companies that are trading well below their intrinsic value some of his most publicized investments include coca cola gillette and dairy queen as of april 2024 the oracle of omaha is estimated to have a net worth of over 133 billion 45in 2006 warren buffett pledged to give away over 99 of his fortune 6 since then he has donated over 49 billion to charitable causes 1the oracle of omaha s early yearswarren buffett was born in omaha nebraska in 1930 to howard and leila buffett the oracle of omaha s father was a stockbroker which gave him an early introduction to the stock market buffett purchased his first stock at age 11 he bought three shares of cities service preferred for 38 per share and sold them at 40 per share after he sold the stock it advanced to 200 on reflection buffett believes this taught him the virtue of patience 7buffett demonstrated business prowess from his early teens running a paper delivery business and completing his own tax returns the oracle of omaha started a pinball machine business while in high school and went on to sell the business for 1 300 he graduated from the university of nebraska with a business degree 8on may 1 2021 the vice chair of berkshire hathaway charlie munger unofficially announced that warren buffett would be succeeded as ceo by greg abel when the 91 year old buffett eventually steps down abel is ceo of berkshire hathaway energy and vice chair in charge of noninsurance operations 9the oracle of omaha s investment philosophywarren buffett is a value investor and a follower of the benjamin graham school of value investing columbia business school professors benjamin graham and david dodd developed their investing concepts which in 1949 were published in graham s book the intelligent investor 2as a value investor buffett looks to purchase companies that are below their intrinsic worth but have the potential to make money buffett attempts to do this by buying companies that are out of favor with the market he values a company by assessing its fundamentals such as return on equity and profitability 2for example buffett likes a company to have a low debt equity ratio he wants earnings growth generated from shareholders equity as opposed to debt the oracle of omaha s quote it s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price sums up his investment philosophy 10