BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC (BRK-B)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is a Delaware-domiciled holding company whose subsidiaries are engaged in numerous diverse business activities. The most important are insurance and reinsurance businesses, a freight rail transportation business, and a group of utility and energy generation and distribution businesses. Berkshire also owns and operates many other businesses in manufacturing, services and retailing. Its operating subsidiaries are managed on an unusually decentralized basis with few centralized or integrated functions. The Chief Executive Officer is ultimately responsible for significant capital allocation decisions, investment activities and evaluating operating performance. Berkshire and its subsidiaries employed approximately 387,800 people worldwide at the end of 2025, about 80% in the U.S. and 19% represented by unions.

The insurance operations, which employed approximately 42,600 people, provide property and casualty as well as life and health insurance and reinsurance worldwide through numerous domestic and foreign subsidiaries. They comprise three underwriting groups. GEICO, headquartered in Maryland, sells private passenger automobile insurance to individuals in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It also sells motorcycle, all-terrain vehicle, recreational vehicle, boat and commercial vehicle coverage, and operates an agency offering third-party homeowners, renters, condominium, life and identity protection insurance. The Berkshire Hathaway Primary Group is a collection of independently managed insurers: NICO Primary (commercial auto and general liability), Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Group (workers' compensation, commercial auto and commercial property, based in Omaha), Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (commercial property and casualty, executive and professional lines, based in Boston), and RSUI and CapSpecialty (property and casualty). The third group is the Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group. Retroactive reinsurance and periodic payment annuity products generate large up-front premiums with claims paid over long periods, creating "float."

Customers range from individual auto policyholders to commercial clients. GEICO sells primarily through direct response methods, via the Internet or by telephone, and to a lesser extent through agencies. BH Primary policyholders are principally in the U.S., with nearly 90% of 2025 net premiums written there, about 40% of that on a non-admitted basis. Its products are distributed through agents, brokers, wholesale and retail brokers and managing general agents. BHSI also has offices in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Asia and Europe. Non-U.S. insurance operations are conducted through subsidiaries in Germany, Ireland, the U.K., Australia and South Africa, among other countries.

Berkshire's corporate headquarters is in Omaha, Nebraska. Insurance competitors may be domestic or foreign, licensed or unlicensed, and compete on financial strength, ratings, service, price and policy terms. GEICO competes with State Farm, Progressive, Allstate and USAA, and holds the third-largest U.S. private passenger auto market share at about 11.6%, per A.M. Best data for 2024. GEICO uses its own claims staff. Insurers are regulated by states and foreign regulators, with the Nebraska Department of Insurance serving as lead supervisor of the group. The combined statutory surplus of the U.S. insurers was about $333 billion at December 31, 2025, and major insurance subsidiaries are rated AA+ by S&P and A++ by A.M. Best.