Buffett’s Latest Interview: Criticizes Today’s Market Speculation Craze, Admits He Personally Led the Investment in Google

BlockBeats, July 16. In a recent interview, “Oracle of Omaha” Warren Buffett shared his views on a range of topics, including the market environment, technology investments, and personnel at the Federal Reserve.

Criticizes today’s market environment as hard to find value

Buffett criticized the current market, saying it is increasingly driven by speculative trading rather than the long-term investment philosophy. “When everyone prefers gambling, it’s hard to find anything valuable.” Earlier this year, he also described the stock market as a church with a casino attached, and specifically pointed out that trading single-day options is a form of gambling. This year, despite the energy shock brought by the US-Iran conflict, the three major U.S. stock indexes have continued to hit new highs. Stocks related to AI infrastructure have been accused of excessive speculation, while retail investors have poured into targets such as Micron Technology and SpaceX. In response, Buffett—who has long practiced value investing—said that genuinely meaningful investment opportunities are rare, requiring patience and discipline. “Sometimes opportunities move so fast you can’t catch them, but at other times, being lucky enough to find one in a few years is already quite something. Because human beings love gambling so much, the money you bring in by training gamblers is more than the money you bring in by training investors.”

Buffett admits he personally led the investment in Google

Buffett said that Berkshire’s recent large-scale investment in Google was driven by him personally, rather than led by the CEO successor Greg Abel. But, “I won’t do anything he doesn’t approve of, and he won’t do anything I don’t approve of—ultimately, he’s the decision-maker.” Since the third quarter of 2025, Berkshire has continued to increase its holdings in Google. Earlier this year, it also participated in its $10 billion private placement. Buffett said openly: “The key to investing is finding companies that can consistently generate high capital returns over a very long period of time,” and he acknowledged that he “made a mistake”—not investing in Google sooner. He recalled that in 2018, he saw the success of Google’s advertising business through Geico, but at the time he was unsure whether it could become a long-term winner. However, he also said Google is not his most favored holding. “My degree of love for it isn’t as high as for at least four or five other companies we hold,” and he pointed out that the key issue facing Google and all its competitors is the tens of billions of dollars in capital invested in the AI space—“When they developed software in the past, they weren’t playing a game like this.”

Wush is a “reasonable option”

When discussing new Federal Reserve chair Kevin Wush, Buffett described him as a “reasonable option.” When Wush first chaired a meeting in June, he already demonstrated a policy style: while keeping interest rates unchanged, he proposed adjustments to the central bank’s policy framework, and in a congressional hearing he promised to push the Federal Reserve to “change course,” while working to tackle inflation. Buffett said: “I think he’ll do his utmost to complete the task he’s been assigned—namely achieving the 2% inflation target, while maintaining maximum employment. He can’t do it perfectly, just like I know I can’t manage other people’s money perfectly and still consistently generate excess returns. Wush cares about this country—this doesn’t mean his decisions are always right, but the reason is that sometimes making these decisions really is very difficult.”