🔥 Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting chaired by Warren Buffett took place yesterday, some highlights:
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- This is the first meeting without Charlie Munger, because he died in 2023 at the age of 99.
- Berkshire Hathaway's total cash balance has increased to a record $188.99 billion USD, many are saying that Warren Buffett is preparing for a market crash. But if you look at Berkshire Hathaway's cash position, it has grown over the years, even during the Bull market. The increase in cash position could be a result of difficulty in Capital allocation as Berkshire has many investment restrictions, often staying away from technology companies, startups, gold and of course crypto . During the market downturn, they used part of their cash to buy stocks, but this was mainly to take advantage of opportunities, not because they knew a recession was coming.
- However, Berkshire Hathaway does not pay dividends, as Buffett has said he could use it for a stock buyback program to return Capital to shareholders, instead of paying dividends.
- For the second quarter in a row, Berkshire reduced its share of Apple shares. During the fourth quarter, they sold about 10 million Apple shares (just 1% of their huge shareholding). Then, in the first quarter, Berkshire sold another 116 million shares. Warren said he believes taxes will increase to cover the government budget deficit, so he decided to sell now.
- Buffett says artificial intelligence fraud could be the next big growth industry, comparing AI to nuclear weapons. He said he knew "nothing" about artificial intelligence, but recounted a recent incident with an AI-generated image of himself on screen that made him nervous about the technology.
- Warren Buffett said renewable energy is one of the things he is interested in, but it takes time to be developed.
- Warren Buffett affirmed that he and Charlie Munger certainly missed many investment opportunities: "We missed many opportunities, and what we really regret is missing out on something very big."
- Warren Buffett said he had cut losses on all Paramount Global shares, this was his fault.
- Warren Buffett praised Fed Chairman Jerome Powell for his work in managing the economy over the years.
- Warren Buffett said "I hope I'll be able to go to [the shareholder meeting] next year." He is 93 years old and he has reassured investors that there is a succession plan in place should something happen to him and revealed for the first time that Greg Abel, his successor, will be the head decision-maker. private.
- Unlike other annual shareholder meetings where Warren spends time criticizing Bitcoin and calling crypto worthless, rat poison, and crypto investors stupid... this time he didn't want to discuss crypto.
