This week, two of the top CEOs in the world publicly passed the baton to their heirs apparent. In a farewell letter to shareholders, Warren Buffett handed the Berkshire Hathaway (No. 6) reins to longtime executive Greg Abel; and Walmart (No. 1) announced that CEO Doug McMillon would retire in February 2026 after more than a decade at the helm, to be succeeded by John Furner, Walmart’s head of U.S. operations.
Both Buffett and McMillon are tough acts to follow. The executive sometimes known as “McMillion” turned around stagnant sales, amped up e-commerce, and maintained Walmart’s position as the world’s biggest company by revenue.
And if you needed any more proof that Buffett is the GOAT of investing, here’s a fun fact: If you had put $1,000 into Berkshire back when Buffett took control of it in 1965, it would be worth $60 million today.
You can get caught up on each successor with these Fortune pieces on Berkshire’s Abel and Walmart’s Furner.
One more item worth your time this weekend: Fortune’s Jessica Mathews and Leo Schwartz investigated a curious case involving Elon Musk’s Boring Company and the Nevada governor’s office. Musk’s contributions to the overall Nevada economy are huge, thanks in part to a large Tesla (No. 43) gigafactory. But there have been numerous safety violations alleged against one of his biggest initiatives, the Boring Company, which is digging a transportation tunnel system under Las Vegas.
Mathews and Schwartz uncovered an incident where state regulators issued serious citations and fines against the company after two firefighters suffered chemical burns in a Boring tunnel. Steve Davis, the top Musk lieutenant who runs Boring, made a phone call; within 24 hours, the citations had been withdrawn, and later, evidence of the meeting taking place had disappeared from the record. Read their full investigation here.
