Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company with a wide array of subsidiaries engaged in diverse activities. The firm's core business segment is insurance, run primarily through Geico, Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group, and Berkshire Hathaway Primary Group. Berkshire has used the excess cash thrown off from these and its other operations over the years to acquire Burlington Northern Santa Fe (railroad), Berkshire Hathaway Energy (utilities and energy distributors), and the companies that make up its manufacturing, service, and retailing operations (which include five of Berkshire's largest noninsurance pretax earnings generators: Precision Castparts, Lubrizol, Clayton Homes, Marmon, and IMC/ISCAR). The conglomerate is unique in that it is run on a completely decentralized basis.

Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company with subsidiaries in a diverse range of industries, including insurance, railroads, utilities, energy, finance, manufacturing, and retailing. Its major subsidiaries include GEICO, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Precision Castparts, and McLane Company. As of June 30, 2024, Berkshire also had about $285 billion of equity investments, including significant stakes in Apple Inc., Bank of America, Coca-Cola, American Express and Chevron.

The Walt Disney Co. is a global entertainment company. The company owns and leverages well-known brands, ranging from Mickey Mouse and 'Frozen' to ESPN and ABC. Disney acquired the animated movie producer Pixar Animation Studios in 2006, comic book and movie producer Marvel Entertainment in 2010, 'Star Wars' originator Lucasfilm in 2012, streaming video technology platform BAMTech (now Disney Streaming Services) in 2017, the assets of 21st Century Fox in March 2019, most of Hulu in May 2019, and the final piece of Hulu in November, 2023. Disney derives 24% of its revenue from outside of North America and 12% from Europe.

Disney operates in three global business segments: entertainment, sports, and experiences. Entertainment and experiences both benefit from franchises and characters the firm has created over the course of a century. Entertainment includes the ABC broadcast network, several cable television networks, and the Disney+ and Hulu streaming services. Within the segment, Disney also engages in movie and television production and distribution, with content licensed to movie theaters, other content providers, or, increasingly, kept in-house for use on Disney’s own streaming platform and television networks. The sports segment houses ESPN and the ESPN+ streaming service. Experiences contains Disney’s theme parks and vacation destinations, and also benefits from merchandise licensing.