Warren Buffett's company is worth $1 trillion for the first time — but he may not be celebrating

• Warren Buffett's company hit a record $1 trillion market value on Wednesday.
• Berkshire Hathaway's B shares have soared by 30% this year.
• Buffett has said Berkshire's vast scale makes it harder to deliver outstanding returns.

Warren Buffett's conglomerate surpassed $1 trillion in market value for the first time, spotlighting the investor's extraordinary success over nearly six decades.

Berkshire Hathaway's Class B shares have surged by 30% this year, far outpacing the S&P 500 index's 18% gain. They climbed by 1% in early trading on Wednesday, boosting Berkshire's market capitalization to a record $1 trillion.

That's a remarkable feat, given that Berkshire comprised two textile mills and about 2,300 employees when Buffett acquired control in early 1965. The business posted after-tax earnings of less than $5 million in 1968, Buffett's partnership letters show.

Almost six decades later, Berkshire owns scores of businesses — including Geico, the BNSF Railway, and Jazwares, the maker of Squishmallows — and holds multibillion-dollar stakes in public companies such as Apple and Coca-Cola. It posted operating earnings in excess of $37 billion last year and employed nearly 400,000 people at the end of December.

Berkshire's sustained growth has made it the seventh-most-valuable US public company. It's worth more than Eli Lilly ($858 billion), Broadcom ($744 billion), and Tesla ($666 billion) but less than Meta Platforms ($1.3 trillion).

Buffett's net worth has risen by about $26 billion this year, putting him in the eighth spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, worth $145 billion.

Headache

A $1 trillion Berkshire had seemed inevitable for a while, given it had assets worth $1.1 trillion at the end of June. That included $277 billion in cash, Treasurys, and other liquid assets and short-term investments.

Buffett, who turns 94 on Friday, might get a kick out of a $1 trillion market cap, but he may also have some misgivings. He's frequently framed Berkshire's mushrooming size as a headache, as it's become harder for him to find high-quality investments large enough to move the dial.

One shareholder asked Buffett during Berkshire's 2014 annual meeting what a $1.2 trillion Berkshire would look like. The "Oracle of Omaha" seemed concerned about what compelling purchases he could make at that gigantic scale.

"There's no question that at some point we will have more cash than we can intelligently deploy," Buffett said, suggesting Berkshire stock might still be attractive to repurchase. That challenge may be on his mind as his company achieves another milestone valuation.