According to a new book, Buffett's extraordinary investment in apple is partly due to an old friend who left his iPhone in the back of a taxi An anecdote is mentioned in the newly published "after Steve: how Apple became a trillion dollar company and lost its soul": in 2016, David "Sandy" Gottesman, a director of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway company, dropped his iPhone out of his pocket while taking a taxi, He landed in the back seat of the taxi, which made him nervous all day.
"I feel like I've lost a part of my soul," the 90 year old told one of Buffett's deputies, Apple Ted Weschler, a longtime fan of.
Weschler shared gotzman's story with Buffett. Buffett was surprised to find that one of his friends was so obsessed with Apple's device at his age. As we all know, Buffett has been avoiding technology stocks, believing that they are not within his "ability".
Buffett noted the extent of people's obsession with smartphones, including when his grandchildren go to Dairy Queen every week. He thinks iPhone It is indispensable to many people, and it has been so for a long time.
Tripp mickle, the author of the new book, wrote: "he realized that Weschler was right: the iPhone is not a technology product, but a modern version of kraft macaroni and cheese."
At that time, Weschler had established a $1 billion Apple position at Berkshire, but Buffett invested another $35 billion in the next few years. Since then, the value of the investment has more than tripled, and the value of its shares has soared to $133 billion. Apple is undoubtedly the most valuable stock in Berkshire's current portfolio, and Berkshire is Apple's largest individual shareholder.
Buffett listed apple as one of the best companies he knew. In his letter to shareholders in 2021, he listed Berkshire's investment in apple as one of Berkshire's four pillar businesses together with the traditional insurance business, BNSF railway and Berkshire Hathaway energy.
It is worth noting that Buffett slightly increased his holdings of Apple shares in the first quarter. By the end of the first quarter, Buffett held about 911 million shares of apple, accounting for about 5.6% of the company's shares.