Berkshire Hathaway Inc. bet big earlier this year that Florida’s reinsurance market would deliver huge premiums with minimal losses. Hurricane Idalia is about to offer a test of that calculus, with months of potential storms left this season. Warren Buffett’s firm ramped up its reinsurance exposure to the state, looking to take advantage of rising prices. The move has left the firm exposed to as much as $15 billion of losses in the event of a major storm, Berkshire’s head of insurance said in May, while it could lead to...

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway swung to a profit in the second quarter owed to its investment portfolio and insurance holdings, according to a release out Saturday. The holding company with businesses that range from insurer Geico and railroad BNSF Railway to Dairy Queen restaurants and its own energy division posted net income of $35.9 billion, or $24,775 a class A share equivalent. That compared with a loss of $43.8 billion, or $29,754 a class A share equivalent, a year earlier. Berkshire’s BRK.A, BRK.B, operating earnings, a figure Warren Buffett wants...

OMAHA, Neb. — Billionaire Warren Buffett said artificial intelligence may change the world but new technology won't take away opportunities for investors and he's confident America will continue to prosper despite its bitter political divisions. Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger spent all day Saturday answering questions at the annual shareholders meeting for his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate inside a packed arena in Omaha. “New things coming along doesn’t take away the opportunities.

Warren Buffett is betting on Japan as a focus of his investment empire in the next decade and gradually turning away from Chinese companies vulnerable to the mounting geopolitical tensions between mainland China and Taiwan. The 92-year-old investor is in Japan this week meeting with the country’s five largest trading houses, Japan’s equivalent of American industrial conglomerates like Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire recently increased stakes in each of the five firms to 7.4 percent from 5 percent because the deals were simply too good to pass up, Buffett said in...

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway added to its already large Occidental Petroleum stake over the past trading sessions, a regulatory filing revealed Tuesday evening. The Omaha-based conglomerate bought nearly 5.8 million shares of the oil company in a few separate trades on Friday, Monday and Tuesday, paying prices in the range from $59.8 to $61.9, the filing showed. The latest purchase, totaling more than $350 million, marked the first time the "Oracle of Omaha" hiked his bet since September. Berkshire now owns 200.2 million shares of Occidental, worth $12.2 billion based...