Berkshire Hathaway’s chairman Warren Buffett becomes the world’s sixth centibillionaire with 11 zeros behind his estimated fortune of US$100 billion

Warren Buffett’s estimated wealth jumped on Wednesday to US$100.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index

That makes Buffett the sixth member of the US$100 billion club, a group including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and his friend Bill Gates

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Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, during a press conference in Detroit, Michigan on November 25, 2013. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:26pm, 11 Mar 2021Updated: 1:26pm, 11 Mar 2021

Warren Buffett has been a fixture at the top of the world’s wealth rankings for decades, but in recent years he’s slipped down the list as tech fortunes soared and his hot hand cooled.

Now, at 90, his net worth has blown past US$100 billion.

The Berkshire Hathaway chairman’s wealth jumped on Wednesday to US$100.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That makes Buffett the sixth member of the US$100 billion club, a group including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and his friend Bill Gates.

The clan’s combined wealth has grown rapidly, fuelled by government stimulus, central-bank policy and the surging equity market. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden’s US$1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill cleared its final congressional hurdle as the House voted to approve the legislation, adding to the US$3 trillion or so in stimulus Washington has already disbursed in the past year.

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett (left) and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger (right) at the annual Berkshire shareholder shopping day in Omaha, Nebraska on May 3, 2019. Photo: Reuters

Berkshire, the source of virtually all of Buffett’s wealth, has had a good start to 2021. The firm’s A shares are up 15 per cent this year, outpacing the 3.8 per cent gain of the S&P 500 Index. That’s been helped by Buffett’s recent push to spend record amounts buying back Berkshire’s own stock, a notable shift for an investor who previously preferred to use the US$138 billion cash pile to buy other businesses or common shares.