95-year-old Buffett said 7 things: Now is not the time to buy the dip, nuclear weapons will eventually be used
Author: Curry, Deep Tide TechFlow
Yesterday, Buffett accepted an exclusive interview with CNBC in the United States exclusive interview.
This was his first long conversation since stepping down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway on January 1 this year. At 95 years old, having steered the company for sixty years and passing the baton to Greg Abel, he could have chosen not to talk.
But he discussed Apple, the Federal Reserve, Bill Gates and Epstein, Iran's nuclear weapons, and also announced that his charity lunch, which had been paused for four years, would be held again.
There was a lot of information, so let's go through it one by one.
1. Went to work on the first day of retirement
Buffett said he still goes to the office every day.
Every day before the market opens, he calls Berkshire's Director of Financial Assets, Mark Millard, to discuss market dynamics and trading. Millard's office is about six meters away from him, and after the call, he goes to execute the trades. When asked if there have been any new operations recently, Buffett said yes, he made a tiny trade, but did not disclose what he bought.
He also drew a line: he would not make any investments that Abel disagrees with, and Abel receives a daily summary of investment dynamics.
This arrangement sounds like saying "the final decision-making power is in the hands of the new CEO," but understood another way, it also means that the 95-year-old former CEO is present every day, participating and trading, while the successor works six meters away from him.
In the interview, Buffett praised Abel repeatedly, saying that Abel does more work in a day than he did in a week at his peak, and that he would rather let Abel manage his money than give it to any top investment advisor in the U.S.
Nominally, he has retired. But this "retirement" feels more like a transition from CEO to someone sitting beside.
2. Sold Apple too early, but not buying now
In this interview, Buffett admitted one thing: Berkshire reduced its stake in Apple too early.
His exact words were: "I sold it too soon. But, I bought it even sooner, so."
Translated, it means he sold too early, but bought even earlier, so he still made a profit. According to him, Berkshire's pre-tax profit from this investment in Apple exceeds $100 billion.
The timeline is as follows: Berkshire began buying Apple around 2016, and the position grew to a peak of over $170 billion, making it Berkshire's largest single holding in history.
Between 2023 and 2024, Berkshire cut its position in Apple by about two-thirds. By the end of last year, according to SEC filings, Berkshire held about 22.79 million shares of Apple, valued at about $62 billion, still accounting for 22.6% of the entire portfolio, making it the largest holding.
Buffett said Apple is better than any company wholly owned by Berkshire.
Berkshire's railroad company BNSF has a market value higher than its Apple holdings, but Apple still ranks first in the holdings list. He also praised Apple CEO Tim Cook as a "fantastic manager," saying Cook knows how to get along with everyone in the world.
However, when asked if he would increase his position again, Buffett gave a conditional answer: it's not impossible, if Apple's price drops to a certain level, Berkshire would buy a lot. But not now, "not in this market."
Apple has already dropped more than 14% from its peak this year, but in Buffett's view, it hasn't reached the price he is willing to act on.
3. Dropped 50% three times, what does this drop matter
The U.S. stock market hasn't looked good this year. As of the day of the interview, the Dow Jones had dropped about 5% this year, the S&P 500 was down about 6%, and the Nasdaq had fallen about 9%. Apple itself has also retreated more than 14% from its high this year.
Buffett's reaction to this was: there's nothing to be excited about.
He said that since he took over Berkshire, the company's stock price has dropped more than 50% at least three times. Compared to those, this current drop is nothing.
He also did not show any intention to make large moves. For him, the current market is far from those historical moments that "created great opportunities."
In just a few words, he was saying don't panic, and also don't expect me to bottom-fish right now.
4. The inflation target should be zero
When asked whether the Federal Reserve is currently more concerned about inflation or employment, Buffett did not take a direct side but made a larger statement: he hopes the Federal Reserve's inflation target is zero.
His logic is that once you say you can tolerate 2% inflation, that number compounds over the long term to an astonishing amount. Moreover, for ordinary people, if you earn 2% interest on your savings and have to pay taxes on that 2%, it means your purchasing power is actually declining.
Buffett also said that compared to employment data, he is more concerned about the dollar's status as the global reserve currency and the stability of the banking system.
He praised Federal Reserve Chairman Powell for his decisive actions in March 2020 during the pandemic, saying that if it had been delayed by two or three weeks, it would have been a disaster, "once the dominoes start to fall, they fall faster than anyone can imagine." In Buffett's mind, Powell and Paul Volcker, who tamed inflation with aggressive rate hikes in the 1980s, are the two most respected figures in the history of the Federal Reserve.
However, he also had criticisms of the Federal Reserve. The 2% inflation target, in his view, is a mistake, as it essentially tells everyone that saving money is not as good as spending it.
5. The charity lunch is back
What prompted Buffett to change his mind was the death of one person.
Cecil Williams, the founder of the Glide Foundation, passed away in 2024. Glide is a charity in San Francisco that helps the homeless, and Buffett's late ex-wife, Susan, volunteered there for a long time. Since 2000, Buffett has auctioned off the opportunity to have lunch with him every year, with all proceeds donated to Glide. This lunch was held for 22 years, and after the last one in 2022, Buffett said he would no longer hold it.
Image: The person in the middle is Cecil Williams
But Cecil's death made him change his mind. Buffett said that when Cecil passed away, he believed Glide should not perish.
This new lunch will have a different format.
Buffett will no longer attend alone; he will be joined by NBA four-time champion Steph Curry and his wife Ayesha Curry. The auction will start on May 7 on eBay, with a starting bid of $50,000. The winning bidder can bring up to seven guests to Omaha on June 24 to have lunch with the three of them. Half of the auction proceeds will be donated to Glide, and the other half to the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation founded by the Currys, an organization that helps youth in Oakland.
The last auction related to the crypto world was in 2019, when Tron founder Justin Sun spent $4.57 million. After that, Buffett donated the Bitcoin that Sun had given him.
6. No longer in contact with Gates
This is the first time Buffett has publicly talked about Bill Gates since stepping down.
He said that since the documents related to Epstein were made public, he has not spoken to Gates. His exact words were: "I don't want to be in a position where I know things ... to be called as a witness." He doesn't want to know too much and doesn't want to be summoned to testify.
Buffett and Gates' relationship has lasted for decades. The two co-founded the Giving Pledge in 2010, calling on the world's wealthiest people to commit to donating the majority of their wealth to charity. Since 2006, Buffett has donated more than $43 billion to the Gates Foundation.
Gates' interactions with Epstein began in 2011, three years after Epstein pleaded guilty to sex crimes in Florida in 2008. Since the end of last year, the U.S. Department of Justice and Congress have released a large number of related documents, and emails and photos between Gates and Epstein have also been exposed.
According to previous reports from The Wall Street Journal, Gates apologized to Gates Foundation employees in February this year, admitting to having had interactions with Epstein and acknowledging an extramarital affair. Gates has accepted an invitation from the U.S. House Oversight Committee to testify on this matter, but the date has not yet been determined.
When asked if he is still good friends with Gates, Buffett's tone was very restrained. He mentioned their past of co-founding the Giving Pledge but then immediately said:
"I think there's no need to say much until things are clarified."
7. Nuclear weapons will eventually be used
At the end of the interview, the topic turned to Iran.
Buffett said there are currently nine countries in the world that possess nuclear weapons. During the Cold War, there were only two, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and everyone was already very tense. But at that time, the decision-makers on both sides could at least be considered rational. Now, the situation is completely different.
He specifically mentioned Iran and North Korea. He said the most dangerous situation is when the person with the nuclear button is about to die or is facing great humiliation. In such circumstances, no one can predict what decision a person will make.
When asked how he would advise handling Iran's uranium enrichment issue if he were an advisor to the U.S. president, Buffett did not give specific advice but said something that sounded fatalistic: in the next hundred years, maybe two hundred years, nuclear weapons will be used. He doesn't know exactly how it will happen, but he believes it is a probability issue; the more countries that possess nuclear weapons, the higher the probability.
Regarding whether Iran should have nuclear weapons, he simply said: if Iran gets nuclear bombs, things will be harder to deal with than if they don't.
A 95-year-old man, who has witnessed the end of World War II, the entire Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union... leaves a thought-provoking judgment at the end of the interview.
This interview lasted about an hour, covering everything that could be discussed.
But one detail that caught my attention throughout the process was: Buffett is 95 years old, has been retired for three months, and not a single word he said in front of the camera was about "reflection" or "summarizing his life."
All his words were looking forward.
Whether to buy more Apple, how the Federal Reserve's targets should be set, how the situation in Iran will develop, how the new charity lunch will be conducted... The host sitting opposite him, Becky Quick, gave him many opportunities to reminisce, but he never took any.
You rarely see someone who has handed over power still more interested in the future than in the past.
The Oracle of Omaha may still be the Oracle of Omaha. It's just that before, he voted with money, and now he votes with judgment.
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