As other have said, it looks like a move to reduce risk. The question is why.

My sense is that WEB looked at the political situation and concluded there would be stormy economic weather ahead and it was a good time to pull back. Whether it is environmental/energy policy, China, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, AI, banking regulation, FTC, SEC, etc., etc., it is too hard to predict what will happen next and what the long-term effects of the new government's policies and actions will be.

Personally I suspect he knew Trump was going to be elected and either didn't think that was going to matter much or thought it was going to make things worse. Either way, since BRK is transforming into more of an operating firm anyway, it made sense to accelerate the process now. He isn't making any new investments, so we really don't know what he is thinking about the future. As others have said, he is probably just setting Greg up for success, according to a plan whose details we do not know.

This seems mostly like another step in the transformation of BRK and the changting of the guard. We will all project our own opinions and preferences onto it. Now you have mine.

abromber