AIAC PAYS TRIBUTE TO WARREN E. BUFFETT AT THE 2026 BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY ANNUAL MEETING IN OMAHA

A Gathering of Friends of Warren

Throughout the weekend's events, AIAC representatives engaged with many of the leading figures who have come to define the global community of investors, journalists, and admirers that has gathered around Mr. Buffett over the decades. Among those greeted by Mr. Levie and his colleagues were CNBC anchor Becky Quick, whose patient and incisive interviews have illuminated Mr. Buffett's wisdom for the public for nearly two decades; the inimitable Bill Murray, whose presence in Omaha each year is its own kind of joyful tribute; and senior representatives of UBS, First Manhattan Co., Robotti & Company Advisors, and Columbia Business School's Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing - the very institution where Mr. Buffett, as a young man, first sat at the feet of Benjamin Graham. Also present were countless other longtime Friends of Warren - shareholders, directors, scholars, and entrepreneurs - who travelled to Omaha from around the world to mark the occasion.

A Statement from AIAC Chairman L. M. Levie:

"It is a profound privilege and joy to have been present in Omaha this weekend for one of the most consequential moments in the history of American business. For sixty years, Warren Buffett has steered Berkshire Hathaway with a clarity of mind, a discipline of judgment, and a depth of decency that have made him not only the most successful investors of our age, but a moral compass for generations of business leaders the world over.

From AIAC's earliest days in 1996, we have been guided by the investment philosophy, the management discipline, and the principles of integrity that Mr. Buffett has so consistently embodied. As a longtime admirer of Mr. Buffett and a Berkshire Hathaway shareholder, I wanted to mark this milestone with something more personal than a statement - and so I wrote what I felt.

It would be impossible to honor Warren Buffett's six decades at Berkshire Hathaway without honoring, in the same breath, the late Charles T. Munger, his partner of nearly half a century, whose wit, candor, and intellectual rigor were inseparable from the firm's character. His memory was very much present throughout the weekend's gatherings, carried with grace by his family, his colleagues, and the wider Berkshire community.

To Greg Abel, who now carries this remarkable legacy forward, I extend AIAC's profound congratulations and our every confidence. Few in the history of American enterprise have inherited a stewardship of such weight, and few have prepared so long, so carefully, and so faithfully to receive it. Mr. Buffett's words of endorsement at the meeting - generous, unequivocal, and heard by every investor in the world - are a benediction we trust will hold for the decades to come.

Mr. Buffett's example has shaped not only how AIAC invests and operates, but the institutions to which we have devoted our philanthropic and intellectual energies - the Economic Club of New York, where I am honored to serve as a Member of the Centennial Society and Legacy Society; the Bretton Woods Committee; the Trilateral Commission; the Peterson Institute for International Economics; and the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute - institutions that share Mr. Buffett's conviction that markets, when conducted with discipline and decency, can be a force for the great good of humankind.

On behalf of AIAC and our worldwide affiliates, I extend our heartfelt gratitude to Warren E. Buffett for sixty extraordinary years, our profound admiration to the late Charlie Munger and to the entire Buffett and Munger families, and our every good wish to Greg Abel as he begins this new and well-earned chapter at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway. May the next chapter of this remarkable American institution be as luminous as the first."

About Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway Inc., headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is one of the world's most admired companies and among the largest by market capitalization. Under the leadership of Warren E. Buffett, who served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for sixty years, the company evolved from a struggling textile manufacturer into a diversified holding company with operations spanning insurance (GEICO, Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group, General Re), railroads (BNSF), energy (Berkshire Hathaway Energy), manufacturing, retailing, and services, and one of the most successful equity investment portfolios in modern history.

On January 1, 2026, Greg Abel succeeded Mr. Buffett as Chief Executive Officer of Berkshire Hathaway, with Mr. Buffett continuing to serve as Chairman of the Board. Mr. Abel, a Berkshire veteran who joined the company in 1999 and previously oversaw all of its non-insurance operations, was unanimously approved by the Berkshire Hathaway Board of Directors and publicly endorsed by Mr. Buffett.

The Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, long known as "Woodstock for Capitalists," draws tens of thousands of shareholders to Omaha each spring and is one of the most closely watched gatherings in the global investment community. The 2026 Annual Meeting, held on May 2 at the CHI Health Center, marked the first under Mr. Abel's leadership as Chief Executive Officer, with Mr. Buffett continuing as Chairman.

For further information, please see:

www.berkshirehathaway.com

About Warren E. Buffett

Warren Edward Buffett, born August 30, 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska, is one of the most successful investors in modern history and a defining figure in twentieth- and twenty-first-century American business. The son of Congressman Howard Buffett, he displayed an early aptitude for finance, purchasing his first shares of stock at age eleven and filing his first tax return at thirteen. He attended the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania before completing his undergraduate studies at the University of Nebraska in 1950, and earned his master's degree in economics from Columbia Business School in 1951, where he studied under Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing.

After working for his mentor at Graham-Newman Corp., Mr. Buffett founded Buffett Partnership Ltd. in his hometown of Omaha in 1956. From 1956 to 1969, the partnership compounded at extraordinary annual rates, far exceeding the broader market. In 1962, the partnership began accumulating shares in Berkshire Hathaway, then a struggling New England textile manufacturer; in 1965, Mr. Buffett took control of the company, and would lead it as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for the next six decades, transforming Berkshire from a single textile mill into one of the largest and most admired holding companies in the world.

In 1978, Mr. Buffett was joined by Charles T. Munger as Vice Chairman, beginning one of the most celebrated partnerships in modern business. Together, the two men built Berkshire Hathaway into a diversified conglomerate spanning insurance, railroads, energy, manufacturing, retailing, and one of the most successful equity investment portfolios ever assembled - including landmark long-term positions in Coca-Cola, American Express, and Apple. Mr. Buffett's annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, written every year since 1965, have become required reading for investors, executives, and students of business worldwide for their clarity, candor, and timeless wisdom on capital allocation, leadership, and ethics.

Renowned for his frugality despite his extraordinary wealth, Mr. Buffett still resides in the modest Omaha home he purchased in 1958. In 2006, he announced that he would gradually donate the great majority of his Berkshire Hathaway shares to charity, the largest beneficiary being the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; in 2010, alongside Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, he co-founded The Giving Pledge, encouraging the world's billionaires to dedicate the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. Mr. Buffett has pledged to give away more than 99 percent of his fortune.

In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded Mr. Buffett the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. He has been named to TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World on multiple occasions and is widely known across the globe as the "Oracle of Omaha." On January 1, 2026, Mr. Buffett passed the role of Chief Executive Officer to Greg Abel after sixty years at the helm, while continuing to serve as Chairman of the Board of Berkshire Hathaway.

For further information, please see:

www.berkshirehathaway.com

About American Industrial Acquisition Corporation

American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC) is a diversified industrial group with manufacturing and distribution sites in 24 countries in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia-New Zealand. AIAC has acquired and grown non-core subsidiaries and divisions of Boeing, Siemens, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Johnson Controls, Merck, Pfizer, Astellas, Visteon, Carlyle, Ahlstrom, Tolko, Groupe Suez, Groupe Rexel, and many other leading multinational corporations.

AIAC companies serve companies and governmental entities worldwide in all major sectors, including aviation, space, defense, automotive, truck, rail, marine, petrochemical, solar, nuclear, food, confectionary, beverage, civil engineering and infrastructure, commercial construction, mining, dredging, disaster relief, education, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. In addition, AIAC companies are exclusive, authorized distributors of leading branded industrial and consumer products and serve as critical suppliers for the construction of major airports, schools, hospitals, performing arts and sports centers, offices and hotels throughout Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. AIAC is a leading manufacturer of building, street, and highway signage in Europe, and a distributor of electrical products throughout France.

Of note, AIAC purchased Boeing Canada in 2005 and has produced over 10,000 unique components for every Boeing jet plane ever since, reliably serving Boeing from manufacturing facilities in North America. A leader in ultra-high precision jet engine component manufacturing, AIAC companies produce 2,200 fan blades for each jet engine produced by GE, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce, and Honeywell.

AIAC companies actively support exploration into outer space, manufacturing critical components for launching and propelling spacecraft and satellites. AIAC customers in this sector include NASA, the European Space Agency, SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Boeing. AIAC affiliate, Champlain Cable Corporation, supported the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space missions with high performance wire and cable. AIAC companies also lead in the design and manufacture of undersea umbilical cables for worldwide oceanographic research.

AIAC companies produce the critical automotive wire and cable for Tesla, GM, Ford, Chrysler-Fiat, Toyota, and Nissan. In connection with its kraft paper manufacturing interests in Canada and the US, AIAC controls and sustainably manages 22 million acres of Manitoba, Canada forestland, an area equivalent in size to the nation of Hungary.

AIAC affiliate, Metallwarenfabrik Gemmingen GmbH, located in Germany, designs, manufactures and distributes high performance, emergency portable power generators utilized in global conflict zones and during natural disasters.

For further information, please see:

www.aiac.com

About AIAC Philanthropy

AIAC and the AIAC Foundation support a wide range of nonprofit, nonsectarian, bipartisan organizations which promote international conflict resolution, disaster relief, economic development, environmental sustainability, exploration, and the performing arts.

The exploration-focused nonprofit organizations which they actively support include The Explorers Club, the National Geographic Society, the Royal Geographical Society, the American Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Space Society, and the United States Space Foundation.

AIAC's other beneficiaries include the Appeal of the Nobel Peace Laureates Foundation Inc., the Asia Society, the Atlantic Council, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - Gates Philanthropy Partners, the Bretton Woods Committee, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Carter Center, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of New York, the Foreign Policy Association, the Institut Française des Relations Internationales, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Crisis Group, the International Rescue Committee, the Japan Society, the JFK School of Government of Harvard University, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), the Sierra Club, the Trilateral Commission, and the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute.

For further information, please see:

https://www.aiac.com/our-values

Media Contact

Isabel Carro-Toro, Vice President
American Industrial Acquisition Corporation
+34 689 295 827 (Spain)
+1 787 244 3175 (USA)
[email protected]