Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, 95, led a $9.7 billion deal to buy OxyChem, a petrochemical unit within Occidental Petroleum.
Key Takeaways
- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is set to acquire OxyChem for $9.7 billion in an all-cash deal.
- Buffett is stepping down as Berkshire CEO on January 1, 2026.
- It’s Berkshire’s biggest deal in three years and likely Buffett’s last at the helm of the company.
Warren Buffett, the 95-year-old chief executive of conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, has made his largest deal yet in three years — potentially his last big acquisition as CEO.
Berkshire announced in a press release on Thursday that it would acquire Occidental Petroleum’s petrochemical unit OxyChem for $9.7 billion in an all-cash deal. OxyChem manufactures chemicals such as chlorine for water treatment, calcium chloride for ice control on roads, and vinyl chloride for plastics.
With the OxyChem acquisition, Berkshire is acquiring “a robust portfolio of operating assets” as well as “an accomplished team,” said Greg Abel, Berkshire’s vice chairman of non-insurance operations, in the release.
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Berkshire held a 28.2% stake in Occidental as of the end of June, after an initial $10 billion investment in 2019 kick-started the relationship. Buffett said at an annual shareholder meeting in May 2023 that his company would not acquire all of Occidental, though it could buy more of the company’s shares.
With the OxyChem acquisition, Berkshire is acquiring “a robust portfolio of operating assets” as well as “an accomplished team,” Buffett’s successor Abel, who is expected to take over the CEO position in January, said in a press release.
It could be Buffett’s last big deal as CEO. At a shareholder meeting in 2021, Buffett disclosed that Abel would succeed him as CEO, clarifying at another shareholder meeting in May that the transition would occur in January 2026. Abel is expected to take over the CEO position in January and has worked at Berkshire for nearly 25 years.
The deal is Berkshire’s biggest since 2022, when it bought property and casualty insurance company Alleghany for $11.6 billion. Since that acquisition, Berkshire’s cash reserves have grown as the company has struggled to find major acquisitions. Berkshire now has a cash pile of $344 billion, which the company can spend on acquisitions and investments.
Occidental said it would use $6.5 billion of the transaction proceeds to reduce its debt, which was over $20 billion as of June. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025, from early October to the end of December.
OxyChem isn’t the only chemical company in Berkshire’s portfolio. In 2011, Buffett led the acquisition of Lubrizol, an American chemical firm that manufactures additives for gasoline and diesel fuel, for $9 billion.
Buffett has been CEO and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway since 1970. Under his leadership, the conglomerate has acquired numerous companies over the decades, including See’s Candies, Duracell, and Geico. Berkshire also holds significant minority stakes in publicly traded companies, like Apple, Coca-Cola, and American Express.
Buffett is currently the eleventh richest person in the world, with a net worth of $150 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The majority of his fortune, or $148 billion, is derived from his stake in Berkshire.
Key Takeaways
- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is set to acquire OxyChem for $9.7 billion in an all-cash deal.
- Buffett is stepping down as Berkshire CEO on January 1, 2026.
- It’s Berkshire’s biggest deal in three years and likely Buffett’s last at the helm of the company.
Warren Buffett, the 95-year-old chief executive of conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, has made his largest deal yet in three years — potentially his last big acquisition as CEO.
Berkshire announced in a press release on Thursday that it would acquire Occidental Petroleum’s petrochemical unit OxyChem for $9.7 billion in an all-cash deal. OxyChem manufactures chemicals such as chlorine for water treatment, calcium chloride for ice control on roads, and vinyl chloride for plastics.
With the OxyChem acquisition, Berkshire is acquiring “a robust portfolio of operating assets” as well as “an accomplished team,” said Greg Abel, Berkshire’s vice chairman of non-insurance operations, in the release.
