Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC

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BNSF diesel-electric locomotives power a train up Tehachapi Mountain in California.

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Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC (BNSF) is a U.S. freight railroad company and a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. It operates one of the largest rail networks in North America through its main subsidiary, BNSF Railway Company. Berkshire acquired the company in 2010 for approximately $44 billion, marking the largest deal in its history at the time. The company is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.

BNSF formed in 1995 when Burlington Northern, Inc., acquired the Santa Fe Pacific Corporation, which had historically operated under the name Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company.

Burlington Northern, Inc., arose out of the merger of the Great Northern Railway Company, the Northern Pacific Railway Company, and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company in 1970. In 1980 the Saint Louis–San Francisco Railway Company merged with Burlington Northern. This merger made Burlington Northern’s railway system the largest in the United States, extending from Chicago south to the Gulf of Mexico and west to the Pacific Northwest. Burlington Northern’s acquisition of the Santa Fe Railway gave it additional trackage in the south-central and southwestern United States.

In 2010 Berkshire Hathaway—the conglomerated holding company led by billionaire investor Warren Buffett—acquired Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation in a deal valued at roughly $44 billion, including assumed debt. At the time, it was the largest acquisition in Berkshire’s history—and a clear signal of Buffett’s long-term confidence in the U.S. economy. The purchase gave Berkshire full ownership of BNSF Railway, one of the nation’s largest freight carriers.

Buffett framed the move as an “all-in wager on the economic future of the United States,” pointing to BNSF’s role in moving goods across a vast and growing network. The deal also fit Berkshire’s broader strategy of acquiring mature, capital-intensive businesses with durable infrastructure and reliable cash flow. Since the acquisition, BNSF has operated as a standalone subsidiary within Berkshire’s portfolio. It does not trade publicly and does not report earnings separately, although it remains one of Berkshire’s largest and most profitable businesses.