What industry is Berkshire Hathaway listed under in its Wikipedia infobox?
Answer
Conglomerate
Answer
Conglomerate
What industry is Berkshire Hathaway listed under in its Wikipedia infobox? Berkshire Hathaway is listed under the industry “Conglomerate.”
That label reflects the company’s structure rather than one particular product. Berkshire Hathaway owns or controls businesses operating across insurance, railroads, utilities, energy, manufacturing, services, and retailing. It also holds substantial minority investments in publicly traded companies, making the overall group far broader than a conventional single-industry corporation.
The company began very differently. Its corporate lineage reaches back to 19th-century New England textile manufacturing, and Berkshire Hathaway was formed in 1955 through the merger of Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates and Hathaway Manufacturing Company. Warren Buffett took control in 1965 and gradually shifted the business away from textiles toward insurance and a diversified collection of operating companies.
“Conglomerate” should not be confused with “insurance,” even though insurance has long supplied Berkshire with important capital through its float. Telecommunications and pharmaceuticals are industries represented among investments or subsidiaries in the wider business world, but neither is Berkshire Hathaway’s infobox industry classification.
Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026