Warren Buffett is warning that the risks posed by rapid AI development are reminiscent of a geopolitical issue that defined much of his career: the development of nuclear weapons.
Speaking in a two-hour special program that aired Tuesday night on CNBC, the now former CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) said that AI leaders’ lack of understanding about where the technology is headed is dangerous.
“Even the people that are smartest about it say they don’t know where it’s going,” Buffett said. “It’s one thing to say you don’t know where you’re going if you’re Columbus and you can always turn around and go back, but the genie is out of the bottle.”
The famed investor compared AI leaders’ blindness over where the technology is headed to Albert Einstein’s comments during the Second World War about the development of the atomic bomb: “This changes everything in the world except how people think.”
Read more: Are we in an AI bubble? How to protect your portfolio if your AI investments turn against you.
“People have thought about it ever since, and ultimately the only progress they’ve made is they’ve gone from what they thought was one country would have it, and … now we have eight, going on nine,” Buffett said. “Now we’ve got some people that scare the hell out of you if they’ve got a pop gun, let alone a nuclear weapon.”
In the special, Buffett said that while he doesn’t believe the threat of nuclear weaponry can be solved with money, he wouldn’t hesitate to spend his fortune to do so, even if their development was “absolutely necessary” for the US during the Second World War.
The topic was Buffett’s first thought when he began thinking about philanthropic spending, he said.
“If I could look out with whatever I’ve got and I could pick out three countries that would permanently get out of the nuclear game, I’d do it in 5 seconds,” Buffett said. “I wouldn’t wait around or die or do anything else. I’d just do it.”
Buffett has previously expressed his concern about nuclear weapons.
“There is, however, one clear, present, and enduring danger to Berkshire against which Charlie and I are powerless. That threat to Berkshire is also the major threat our citizenry faces: a “successful” (as defined by the aggressor) cyber, biological, nuclear or chemical attack on the United States,” Buffett wrote in Berkshire Hathaway’s 2015 annual report.
Buffett’s comments echo previous public statements he has made as the AI revolution has dominated the financial markets over the last few years.
At Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting in May 2024, for instance, Buffett said AI has “enormous potential for good and enormous potential for harm.”
Buffett announced in a November 2025 letter to shareholders that he would no longer speak at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting. Its CEO, Greg Abel, who took the reins on Jan. 1, is expected to write the firm’s annual letter to shareholders and take questions from shareholders in the spring.
Jake Conley is a breaking news reporter covering US equities for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @byjakeconley or email him at jake.conley@yahooinc.com.
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