Buffett has liberal leanings. He supported John Kerry at the last election, funded the pro-choice group Planned Parenthood and has attacked US President George W. Bush for seeking to cut inheritance tax.
His personal life is unorthodox. He married in 1952 and his wife, Susan, headed his charitable foundation until her death in 2004.
Although they were close, they had a 25-year arrangement whereby she lived in San Francisco and he lives in Omaha with a Latvian-born former waitress, Astrid Menks.
Buffett's three children — Susie, Howard and Peter — will inherit only a relatively small chunk of his fortune. He says he wants them to have enough "to do anything but not to do nothing."
His words on stock market trends engender more textual analysis than those of the US Federal Reserve chief or the treasury secretary.
When the former Chinese president Jiang Zemin complained he did not understand the US stock market, Bill Clinton sent him a copy of Buffett's latest letter to shareholders.
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