Warren Buffett disciples want to know what he plans to do with all that cash

Theron Mohamed

Fri, May 2, 2025, 12:39 PM 7 min read

• Warren Buffett will host a nearly five-hour Q&A at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting this weekend.

• More than a dozen of Buffett's close followers told BI the burning questions they hope he'll answer.

• They're eager for him to speak about tariffs, Berkshire's cash pile, and retirement plans.

Warren Buffett kept quiet when stocks tumbled. On Saturday, the famed investor will break his silence with nearly five hours of questions at Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting.

The $1 trillion conglomerate, which Buffett still heads at 94, owns many businesses, including auto insurer Geico and the BNSF Railway, and holds billion-dollar stakes in public companies such as Apple and Coca-Cola. If it's affecting the US economy, it's affecting Berkshire. That, combined with Buffett's decades of investing experience, will have tens of thousands of followers hanging off his every word during the event in his hometown of Omaha.

More than a dozen of Buffett's close followers told Business Insider the burning questions they want him to answer, from tariff impacts and Berkshire's cash pile to his retirement plans and Apple disposals.

Tariffs have reignited investors' fears of inflation and recession, sparking an exodus from US stocks, Treasurys, and the dollar in recent weeks.

"I'd like to hear how the tariffs are affecting Berkshire's businesses now, and how they may affect the businesses in the future," Steven Check, the CEO of Check Capital Management, told BI. He also wanted to hear Buffett's views on tariffs from a global perspective.

Adam Mead, the author of " The Complete Financial History of Berkshire Hathaway " and a money manager, told BI that Trump's tariffs "might change the calculus" for Berkshire's solar projects, adding they likely source many of their panels and equipment from overseas.

Adam Schwartz, the founder and chief investor of Black Bear Value Partners, told BI he hoped Buffett would address tariffs and advise investors on protecting their portfolios.

Schwartz said, "Does he view the tariff policy as a structural change in the environment, and how do you handicap the downside?"

John Longo — a finance professor, investment chief, and the author of "Buffett's Tips: A Guide to Financial Literacy and Life" — told BI he hoped Buffett would say whether he still thinks the US trade deficit is an urgent problem as he argued in a Fortune article in 2003.