Billionaire businessman Warren Buffett has finally joined the exclusive $100 billion club as investors took the stock price of his company to a record high, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The 90-year-old is the chairman of investment firm Berkshire Hathaway, which has seen its shares rise to a record level this year. Last day Mr. Buffett’s net worth edged to $100.4 billion for the first time.
Other members of the $100 billion club include Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, LVMH Moet Hennessy’s Bernard Arnault and his family and Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.
Berkshire’s stock has surged higher in March, surpassing $400,000 last day. The firm’s A-shares are up 16 percent since the start of the year. Mr. Buffett added about $1.9 billion to his fortune as Berkshire Class A shares hit high.
Last year, the US-based company has bought back a record $24.7 billion of its own stock and said there’s more to come, as the conglomerate struggled to find ways to deploy its huge pile of cash.
Mr. Buffett, who is known as the world’s most successful investor, has given away billions of his wealth to charity. Even though the 90-year-old has been at the top of the world’s wealth rankings for decades, his personal fortune hasn’t topped $100 billion until now.
In 2006, Mr. Buffett started donating his company’s shares to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities. He has given away over $37 billion in Berkshire Hathaway stock since then. He is also the co-founder of the Giving Pledge, a campaign started to encourage billionaire philanthropy.
Berkshire Hathaway was a failing textile company before Mr. Buffett took control of it in 1965 and now it owns more than 90 businesses.
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