Who Will Be The Next Warren Buffett? 5 Contenders

Warren Buffett is arguably the greatest investor of all-time and has created massive amounts of wealth for Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. Buffett announced in May that he would step down as CEO of the conglomerate at the end of 2025, leaving many investors wondering — who will be the next Warren Buffett of the investing world?

The question has been asked for decades, with some of the early contenders failing to live up to the lofty expectations. The truth is that it will be hard for anyone to match the record Buffett has achieved. He’s generated high returns for more than six decades, while also serving as the unofficial teacher and moral authority of capitalism. 

There are many investors who have achieved great results for a period of time, but they’re often publicity-shy and may even close their funds to manage their own money at some point. Still, there are some candidates with impressive track records who could fill some of the void once Buffett is no longer around.

Here are five investors with the potential to be the next Warren Buffett.

1. Greg Abel

If you’re looking for the next Warren Buffett, you might as well start with the man who’s replacing him as Berkshire Hathaway CEO. Greg Abel was handpicked by Buffett to take over Berkshire at the end of 2025, so it’s clear that Buffett’s been impressed by his investing and business skills. 

Abel has served as a vice chairman at Berkshire since 2018, overseeing the company’s non-insurance businesses such as BNSF Railway, Berkshire Hathaway Energy and various retail operations. He worked as part of the company’s energy business for many years and was president of MidAmerican Energy when Berkshire invested in it in 1999. 

“I think the prospects of Berkshire will be better under Greg’s management than mine,” Buffett told shareholders in May. 

2. Bill Ackman

Bill Ackman is the founder of Pershing Square Capital, an investment fund that holds a concentrated portfolio of stocks. Ackman got his start investing in small companies, just as Buffett had, and was a close watcher of Buffett in his early years, even asking questions at the Berkshire annual meeting in the 1990s. 

Ackman has expressed an interest in building a Berkshire-like entity with permanent capital to better invest for the long term. He’s been more outspoken in recent years on political issues, backing President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and offering support for Israel’s actions in Gaza as part of the Israel-Hamas war. 

Ackman was worth about $8.2 billion as of July 2025, according to Bloomberg.

3. Seth Klarman

Seth Klarman is the CEO and portfolio manager at The Baupost Group, a Boston-based investment manager. The firm specializes in value investing across a variety of asset classes, including stocks, bonds and commercial real estate. 

Klarman is also the author of “Margin of Safety,” considered by many to be one of the best books on investing ever written. The book is out of print, but used copies can sell for more than $1,000. 

Klarman tends to stay out of the limelight, but his annual letters are highly sought-after in the investment community. Buffett was reportedly once asked who he’d want to manage his money if he couldn’t do it himself, and Klarman was one of his top choices.

4. Ted Weschler

Ted Weschler was hired by Buffett in 2011 to work as an investment manager at Berkshire. Weschler had previously managed his own hedge fund in Charlottesville, Virginia, and met Buffett through a charity lunch auction he purchased two years in a row. 

Weschler keeps a low profile and has only conducted a handful of interviews over the years, but his investment skills are well respected. He grew his retirement account from about $70,000 at the end of 1989 to over $264 million at the end of 2018, according to ProPublica. Weschler said the account was only invested in publicly traded securities. 

Berkshire also hired Todd Combs to work as an investment manager in 2010. Combs has a background in insurance and took over as the CEO of Geico, which Berkshire owns, in 2019. Weschler and Combs each manage a portion of Berkshire’s massive stock portfolio. 

5. Li Lu

Li Lu founded Himalaya Capital, a Seattle-based investment fund, in 1997 and at one time was expected to join Berkshire in an investment role. Li was born in China and was one of the leaders of the student protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. He fled China and came to the U.S., where he earned a bachelor’s degree, law degree and MBA from Columbia University simultaneously. 

Li follows the same investment philosophy as Buffett and his long-time partner Charlie Munger. He became close friends with Munger and managed money on his behalf. In 2010, The Wall Street Journal reported that Li Lu was likely to join Berkshire as an investment officer, but he ultimately decided to stay at his own firm. 

Li is credited with introducing the electric-vehicle company BYD to Munger and Berkshire, which ultimately invested in the Chinese company, earning billions for Berkshire shareholders.