Inside Omaha’s CHI Health Center on Saturday, tens of thousands of Warren Buffett fans hung on his every word for hours, until they heard the ones they had dreaded the most: He’s stepping down.

The 94-year-old stunned the business world when he closed out Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting by revealing he would leave his CEO position by the end of the year. It even surprised his handpicked successor, Greg Abel, who wasn’t informed of the announcement beforehand.

After Buffett’s mic drop, the silent crowd erupted into a delirious, minutes-long standing ovation.

What a run

In 1965, Warren Buffett took over a struggling textile company and over the next six decades transformed it into a $1.1 trillion conglomerate that’s among the most successful American companies of the modern era. Berkshire now owns 189 operating businesses, such as Geico, Duracell, and Fruit of the Loom, as well as a bunch of stock holdings, including Coca-Cola and Apple.

Buffett is the investing GOAT for a reason: His creed of patience and seeking value has inspired millions and generated outsized returns for decades.

• In fact, Berkshire stock could fall 99% and it would still outperform the S&P 500 since Buffett came on board in 1965, according to Barron’s.
• That’s because Berkshire’s stock has increased 19.9% a year during that timespan, compared to the S&P’s 10.4% annual return (including reinvested dividends).

What happens next for Berkshire?

Buffett said he’d “still hang around, and could conceivably be useful in a few cases,” but the keys to the kingdom will be handed off to Abel, a native of Canada who grew Berkshire Hathaway’s energy division into one of the leading power producers in the US.

One of the key decisions will be how to deploy Berkshire’s Scrooge McDuck-level cash pile, which has ballooned to nearly $350 billion. Buffett has had trouble finding attractive acquisitions in recent years, while being a net seller of stocks for 10 straight quarters.

Finally, a few Buffett-isms from the meeting…

• He is opposed to tariffs: “Trade should not be a weapon.”
• He downplayed the market volatility: “This has not been a dramatic bear market or anything of the sort.”
• He loves watching Tim cook: Of the Apple CEO, he said, “I’m somewhat embarrassed to say Tim Cook has made Berkshire a lot more money than I’ve ever made.”—NF

The air traffic controller shortage snarled Newark Airport. Saturday marked the sixth consecutive day that the Federal Aviation Administration delayed flights bound for the New Jersey airport due to staffing problems. United Airlines is particularly struggling with the situation at Newark. On Friday, United CEO Scott Kirby released a statement, saying that “technology that FAA air traffic controllers rely on to manage the airplanes coming in and out of Newark airport failed,” which led to “dozens of diverted flights” and “hundreds of delayed and canceled flights” at that airport. He also said that 20% of the air traffic controllers for Newark Airport “walked off the job.” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is expected to release his plan this week for modernizing the FAA.

The Sean “Diddy” Combs trial begins today. Jury selection will take place at a federal courthouse in Manhattan preceding the hip-hop mogul’s trial, which highlights claims made by four women that Combs abused them. He was arrested last September and charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted, Combs could spend decades behind bars. One of the women is Cassandra Ventura, better known as Cassie, who had a 10-year relationship with Combs, and whom Combs was captured on security footage punching, kicking, and dragging in 2016. Combs has acknowledged that incident but denies all other allegations.

  President Trump authorized a tariff on movies made outside the US. Yesterday evening, Trump said on Truth Social that “the Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death,” and that he was authorizing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to “immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff” on “Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.” The president said other countries offering filmmakers and studios incentives to make movies outside the US is a national security threat. Details of the plan have not yet been released.—HVL

Think your niche hobby can’t become a career? In a landmark study published on Friday, researchers say they’ve created an antivenom that offers unmatched protection against some of the world’s deadliest creatures, all thanks to a snake enthusiast and truck mechanic from Wisconsin who let himself be bitten hundreds of times and is now director of herpetology at the biotech startup Centivax, which is at the forefront of the research.

Playing the long game, for science

Tim Friede first allowed a venomous cobra to bite him in 2001 with the aim of building up his own immunity as he pursued his hobby. Over time, his goal broadened. He wanted to raise awareness for snakebite treatment and prevention:

• Over 140,000 people die of snake bites each year, and 450,000 are seriously injured.
• Friede experienced 200 bites from “all manner of venomous snakes” and injected himself with the venom of 700 specimens, including some of the world’s deadliest, he said. He discontinued both practices around 2019 for safety.

Enter Centivax: The company’s CEO, Dr. Jacob Glanville, was looking for a potential source of antibodies for broad protection from venom, which is incredibly difficult to achieve, when he found Friede and told him, “I’d love to get my hands on some of your blood.”

Thanks to said blood, Centivax created an antivenom that research now shows offers “unparalleled” protection against 13 lethal snakes and partial protection from six others. If commercialized, it could end up dominating the estimated $600 million market for antivenom.—HVL

The “wait and see” Fed will meet this week: Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his central bank mafia are pretty much a lock to keep interest rates steady, despite President Trump’s urging to lower rates. The Fed, much like everyone in the business world, is trying to navigate a deep fog of uncertainty, and Powell has repeatedly said he needs more clarity on the direction of the economy before making a move. Traders are betting the first rate cut will come in July.

Mark Carney meets Donald Trump: On Tuesday, Canada’s newly elected prime minister will sit down with the man who got him elected: President Trump. Carney’s defiant rhetoric toward Trump helped him overcome a 25-point polling deficit to his opponent, and tomorrow comes the awkward part where the two will meet at the White House. Carney said he’ll kickstart negotiations on lowering US tariffs on Canada, but tamped down expectations of a breakthrough: “Do not expect white smoke out of that meeting.”

The Met Gala is tonight: If you’ve managed to snag a $75,000 ticket to the A-list museum fundraiser, you’ll be expected to go viral in an outfit inspired by the theme, “Tailored for You,” which honors Black dandyism throughout American history. The co-chairs of Anna Wintour’s fashion blowout are Pharrell Williams, Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, and A$AP Rocky, while LeBron James snagged the “honorary co-chair” title.

Everything else…

• Today is Cinco de Mayo.
• Disney, Uber, and Palantir highlight another busy earnings week.
• The deadline to get a REAL ID to fly domestically in the US is Wednesday.
• Also on Wednesday, the conclave begins in Vatican City to determine the next pope.

A gathering of 2.5 million little monsters in Brazil on Saturday night broke a record, and none of them were capybaras. Rather, Lady Gaga played a free live concert at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, which broke Madonna’s record for highest-attended concert by a female artist set in 2024 at the same venue (Madonna had 1.6 million attendees).

Although free for attendees, the city paid an undisclosed sum to bring in Gaga as a means of revitalizing Rio de Janeiro. Officials projected the event would inject up to $100 million into the local economy.

On Sunday, Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security released a statement saying that authorities thwarted a plot from “a larger extremist network” to infiltrate the concert, detonate improvised explosive devices, and gain notoriety online. Lady Gaga said she learned about this from the media when everyone else did.—HVL