Warren Buffett turned a failing Omaha textile mill into a $1 trillion company — and never left
- Berkshire Hathaway has run from the same Omaha office building since 1962
- First non-tech company ever to cross $1 trillion in market value
- Union Pacific, Mutual of Omaha and Kiewit are Omaha companies too
- The Cornhusker State, 37th to join the Union (1867)
How Nebraska’s digital economy grew
Union Pacific Railroad is incorporated
Chartered to build the transcontinental railroad west from Omaha, the same year Congress passed the Homestead Act.
The Oracle never left
Buffett bought his first Berkshire stock in 1962 and took control in 1965 after a dispute over a stock buyback price. His stated reasoning for staying in Omaha rather than moving to Wall Street: "If you can’t think clearly in Omaha, you’re not going to think clearly anyplace." He’s lived in the same house since 1958, and Berkshire’s headquarters has stayed in the same unglamorous Omaha office building since 1962 — staffed by just a few dozen corporate employees overseeing a company of some 400,000 people worldwide, now worth over $1 trillion.
An improbable corporate density
A metro of about a million people hosts four Fortune 500 headquarters: Berkshire Hathaway, Union Pacific Railroad (chartered 1862), Kiewit Corporation (1884, one of the largest employee-owned companies in the US), and Mutual of Omaha (1909). Union Pacific’s corporate parent even moved its headquarters back to Omaha in 2004 after 35 years away — a pattern of staying, or coming back, that runs through Omaha’s business history.
How Nebraska businesses buy websites
Omaha’s corporate giants get the headlines, but most of Nebraska’s businesses are the trades and shops serving Lincoln, Omaha’s neighborhoods, and farm towns across the rest of the state.
Trades and home services
Nebraska covers a lot of farmland — say plainly which towns and counties you actually serve.
Professional and B2B services
A state built on patient, long-term thinking rewards clarity about exactly what you do.
Agriculture and shops
Suppliers to Nebraska’s farming economy benefit from being specific about what they handle.
How well do you know Nebraska’s digital economy?
3 quick questions. Get all 3 right and you win a 10% off discount code. Every answer is somewhere on this page.
Nebraska quiz · 1 of 3
In what year did Warren Buffett take control of Berkshire Hathaway?
Why FastSites works here
A state whose most famous investor built a trillion-dollar company on patience and plain thinking understands the value of not overcomplicating things. A clear one-page site, live in days, at a published price, is that same instinct for a small business.