Business segment data (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2024

Segment Reporting [Abstract]

Schedule of revenues, earnings before income taxes, interest expense, income tax expense, capital expenditures, depreciation, goodwill and identifiable assets by segment

We view our insurance segment as possessing two distinct activities – underwriting and investing. Underwriting decisions are the responsibility of the underwriting managers, while investment decisions are the responsibility of Berkshire’s CEO and other corporate investment managers. Accordingly, performance of underwriting operations is evaluated without any allocation of investment income. As such, the insurance net investment income is presented in the aggregate as a separate component of insurance segment operating earnings. Earnings data of our business segments for each of the three years ended December 31, 2024 are shown in the following tables (in millions).

	2024
	GEICO			BH Primary		BHRG		Total Underwriting			Investment Income		Total
Revenues	$	42,252		$	18,733	$	27,272	$	88,257		$	16,812	$	105,069
Costs and Expenses:
Losses and LAE		30,331			12,666		13,189		56,186			—		56,186
Life, annuity and health benefits		—			—		3,858		3,858			—		3,858
Other segment items		4,108			5,212		7,488		16,808			64		16,872
Total costs and expenses		34,439			17,878		24,535		76,852			64		76,916
Earnings before income taxes	$	7,813		$	855	$	2,737	$	11,405		$	16,748	$	28,153
	2023
	GEICO			BH Primary		BHRG		Total Underwriting			Investment Income		Total
Revenues	$	39,264		$	17,129	$	27,010	$	83,403		$	11,619	$	95,022
Costs and Expenses:
Losses and LAE		31,814			11,224		14,149		57,187			—		57,187
Life, annuity and health benefits		—			—		4,029		4,029			—		4,029
Other segment items		3,815			4,531		6,928		15,274			38		15,312
Total costs and expenses		35,629			15,755		25,106		76,490			38		76,528
Earnings before income taxes	$	3,635		$	1,374	$	1,904	$	6,913		$	11,581	$	18,494
	2022
	GEICO			BH Primary		BHRG		Total Underwriting			Investment Income		Total
Revenues	$	38,984		$	13,746	$	21,846	$	74,576		$	7,734	$	82,310
Costs and Expenses:
Losses and LAE		36,297			9,889		11,460		57,646			—		57,646
Life, annuity and health benefits		—			—		5,243		5,243			—		5,243
Other segment items		4,567			3,464		3,678		11,709			10		11,719
Total costs and expenses		40,864			13,353		20,381		74,598			10		74,608
Earnings before income taxes	$	(1,880	)	$	393	$	1,465	$	(22	)	$	7,724	$	7,702

Insurance other segment items include commissions and brokerage expenses and other insurance underwriting expenses.

	BNSF
	2024		2023		2022
Revenues	$	23,572	$	23,876	$	25,888
Costs and Expenses:
Compensation and benefits		5,872		5,551		5,321
Fuel		3,267		3,684		4,581
Depreciation and amortization		2,621		2,627		2,510
Interest expense		1,078		1,048		1,025
Other segment items		4,086		4,352		4,743
Total costs and expenses		16,924		17,262		18,180
Earnings before income taxes	$	6,648	$	6,614	$	7,708

BNSF other segment items include purchased services, equipment rents and materials expenses.

Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements

(26)Business segment data

	BHE
	2024		2023		2022
Revenues	$	26,348	$	26,008	$	26,393
Costs and Expenses:
Energy cost of sales		6,616		7,057		6,757
Energy operations and maintenance		5,470		6,456		4,216
Energy depreciation and amortization		3,957		3,960		3,695
Real estate costs and expenses		4,509		4,316		5,117
Interest expense		2,528		2,283		2,140
Other segment items		976		996		1,322
Total costs and expenses		24,056		25,068		23,247
Earnings before income taxes	$	2,292	$	940	$	3,146

BHE other segment items primarily consist of property taxes and other expenses. Energy operations and maintenance includes losses associated with the 2020 and 2022 Wildfires. See Note 27.

	Manufacturing						Service and Retailing
	2024		2023		2022		2024		2023		2022
Revenues	$	77,231	$	75,405	$	75,781	$	39,874	$	39,996	$	38,303
Costs and Expenses:
Cost of sales and services		50,702		50,389		52,297		23,818		23,915		22,952
Cost of leasing		1,142		1,051		1,083		5,917		5,011		4,462
Interest expense		934		784		739		118		101		42
Other segment items		12,558		11,736		10,485		6,321		6,248		6,076
Total costs and expenses		65,336		63,960		64,604		36,174		35,275		33,532
Earnings before income taxes	$	11,895	$	11,445	$	11,177	$	3,700	$	4,721	$	4,771

Other segment items of manufacturing, services and retailing segments primarily consist of selling, general and administrative expenses.

	Pilot				McLane
	2024		2023		2024		2023		2022
Revenues	$	46,891	$	51,739	$	51,907	$	52,607	$	53,209
Costs and Expenses:
Cost of sales and services		42,591		47,505		47,604		48,495		49,236
Depreciation and amortization		1,012		796		217		208		176
Other segment items		2,674		2,470		3,452		3,449		3,526
Total costs and expenses		46,277		50,771		51,273		52,152		52,938
Earnings before income taxes	$	614	$	968	$	634	$	455	$	271

Pilot other segment items primarily consist of store operating, interest and general and administrative expenses. McLane other segment items include general and administrative expenses.

Reconciliations of revenues and earnings (loss) before income taxes of our business segments to the consolidated amounts for each of the three years ended December 31, 2024 follows (in millions).

	Revenues							Earnings (loss) before income taxes
	2024		2023			2022		2024			2023			2022
Total operating businesses	$	370,892	$	364,653		$	301,884	$	53,936		$	43,637		$	34,775
Investment gains (losses)		—		—			—		52,799			74,855			(67,899	)
Interest expense, not allocated to segments		—		—			—		(427	)		(426	)		(420	)
Non-controlled businesses		—		—			—		1,841			1,973			1,863
Corporate, eliminations and other		541		(171	)		136		2,227			127			1,181
	$	371,433	$	364,482		$	302,020	$	110,376		$	120,166		$	(30,500	)

Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements

(26)Business segment data

Additional segment data for each of the three most recent years follows (in millions).

	Interest expense									Income tax expense (benefit)
	2024			2023			2022			2024			2023			2022
Business segments
Insurance	$	—		$	—		$	—		$	5,462		$	3,497		$	1,247
BNSF		1,078			1,048			1,025			1,617			1,527			1,763
BHE		2,528			2,283			2,140			(1,871	)		(2,022	)		(1,629	)
Manufacturing		934			784			739			2,598			2,487			2,403
Pilot		302			414			—			—			169			—
McLane		22			—			—			152			117			66
Service and retailing		118			101			42			912			1,135			1,131
		4,982			4,630			3,946			8,870			6,910			4,981
Reconciliation to consolidated amount
Investment gains (losses)		—			—			—			11,179			15,930			(14,166	)
Interest expense, not allocated to segments		427			426			420			(90	)		(90	)		(88	)
Non-controlled businesses		—			—			—			322			223			334
Corporate, eliminations and other		(209	)		(53	)		(14	)		534			46			437
	$	5,200		$	5,003		$	4,352		$	20,815		$	23,019		$	(8,502	)

	Capital expenditures						Depreciation and amortization
	2024		2023		2022		2024		2023		2022
Business segments
Insurance	$	99	$	68	$	82	$	411	$	401	$	260
BNSF		3,690		3,920		3,532		2,621		2,627		2,510
BHE		9,013		9,148		7,505		4,003		4,010		3,751
Manufacturing		2,779		2,714		2,477		2,422		2,290		2,140
Pilot		799		705		—		1,012		796		—
McLane		236		264		93		217		208		176
Service and retailing		2,360		2,590		1,775		1,522		1,335		1,245
	$	18,976	$	19,409	$	15,464		12,208		11,667		10,082
Reconciliation to consolidated amount
Corporate, eliminations and other								647		819		817
							$	12,855	$	12,486	$	10,899

	Goodwill at year-end						Identifiable assets at year-end
	2024		2023		2022		2024		2023		2022
Business segments
Insurance	$	16,557	$	16,563	$	16,548	$	539,884	$	538,860	$	459,917
BNSF		15,351		15,350		14,852		80,813		79,227		77,752
BHE		11,669		11,804		11,745		128,276		124,383		118,114
Manufacturing		27,716		27,831		28,460		119,860		115,875		113,578
Pilot		6,477		6,605		—		19,652		21,404		—
McLane		232		232		232		7,165		6,861		7,049
Service and retailing		5,878		6,241		6,282		37,198		34,600		31,291
	$	83,880	$	84,626	$	78,119		932,848		921,210		807,701
Reconciliation to consolidated amount
Corporate and other								137,153		64,142		62,645
Goodwill								83,880		84,626		78,119
							$	1,153,881	$	1,069,978	$	948,465

Schedule of premiums written and earned

Property/casualty and life/health insurance premiums written and earned are summarized below (in millions).

	Property/Casualty									Life/Health
	2024			2023			2022			2024			2023			2022
Premiums Written:
Direct	$	65,495		$	61,990		$	56,700		$	19		$	—		$	582
Assumed		20,422			20,751			15,143			5,016			5,126			5,222
Ceded		(2,231	)		(2,402	)		(1,155	)		(28	)		(33	)		(37	)
	$	83,686		$	80,339		$	70,688		$	5,007		$	5,093		$	5,767
Premiums Earned:
Direct	$	64,880		$	60,437		$	55,879		$	18		$	—		$	582
Assumed		20,738			20,442			14,184			5,008			5,105			5,263
Ceded		(2,359	)		(2,548	)		(1,293	)		(28	)		(33	)		(39	)
	$	83,259		$	78,331		$	68,770		$	4,998		$	5,072		$	5,806

Schedule of insurance premiums written by geographic region

Insurance premiums written by geographic region (based upon the domicile of the insured or reinsured) are summarized below (in millions).

	Property/Casualty						Life/Health
	2024		2023		2022		2024		2023		2022
United States	$	71,723	$	67,831	$	59,648	$	1,358	$	1,285	$	2,107
Western Europe		5,252		5,014		4,901		1,407		1,323		1,235
Asia Pacific		5,043		5,306		4,699		1,548		1,760		1,704
All other		1,668		2,188		1,440		694		725		721
	$	83,686	$	80,339	$	70,688	$	5,007	$	5,093	$	5,767