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STORY: The market value of Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate built by renowned investor Warren Buffett, passed $1 trillion on Wednesday, reflecting investor confidence in what many consider to be a proxy for the American economy.

Berkshire joined just six other companies to have reached that milestone, all of them Big Tech: Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta Platforms.

If that group, collectively, sounds familiar it is because all are members of the so-called Magnificent 7 group of stocks that have powered the market for much of the past two years. Among those, only Tesla has yet to reach the $1 trillion mark.

Buffett, who turns 94 on Friday, has run Berkshire Hathaway since 1965.

Since then, its shares have gained more than 5,600,000%. That's about 20% a year, nearly double the annualized gain in the S&P 500, including dividends.

Over his six decade reign, Buffett has built the Omaha-based company to include Geico car insurance, the BNSF railroad, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Brooks running shoes, Dairy Queen ice cream, Ginsu knives and the World Book encyclopedia.

Berkshire also has a huge stock portfolio led by Apple, though it has sold more than half its Apple shares this year.

Buffett still owns more than 14% of Berkshire, despite having donated more than half his shares to charity since 2006.

As of Tuesday, Buffett's fortune was about $145 billion, which, according to Forbes magazine, makes him the world's sixth-richest person.