Buffett's Latest Interview: Selling Apple Too Early, But Now Is Not the Time to Bottom Fish

Original Title: 《Warren Buffett, Age 95, Said 7 Things: This Is Not Yet a Bargain-Hunting Moment; Nuclear Weapons Will Be Used Sooner or Later》

Original Author: Qri, Deep Tide TechFlow

Yesterday, Buffett sat down for a lengthy interview with U.S. CNBC.

This was his first time doing so since he stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway on January 1 of this year. At 95, having steered it for sixty years, and handing the reins to Greg Abel, he by rights didn’t need to talk anymore.

But he talked about Apple, talked about the Federal Reserve, talked about Bill Gates and Epstein, talked about Iran’s nuclear weapons—and he also announced that his charity lunch will be held again after a four-year pause.

There’s a lot of information. 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.

Before the market opens each day, he calls Mark Millard, Berkshire’s Chief Investment Officer in charge of financial assets, to discuss market developments and coordinate transactions. Millard’s office is about six meters away from him. After the call, he goes to execute. When asked if he has made any new moves recently, Buffett said yes—he made a small purchase (a tiny buy of one lot)—but didn’t disclose what he bought.

He also drew a line at the same time: he won’t make any investments that Abel doesn’t agree with. Abel will receive a daily summary of investment activity.

This arrangement sounds like it’s saying, “ultimate decision-making power is in the new CEO’s hands.” But understood another way, it also means the 95-year-old former CEO is there every day, involved every day, trading every day—while the successor works outside his six-meter radius.

In the interview, Buffett praised Abel again and again, saying that the workload Abel handles in a single day is more than what he himself did in a week at his peak. He said he would rather have him manage his money than hand it over to any top investment adviser in the United States.

On paper, he has “retired.” But this “retirement” is more like moving from CEO to someone sitting beside the process.

2. Sold Apple too early—but he still doesn’t buy now ==============

In this interview, Buffett admitted one thing: Berkshire cut its Apple position too early.

The exact quote is: “I sold it too soon. But, I bought it even sooner, so.”

Translated, it means: sold too early, but bought even earlier—so he still made money. As he disclosed, Berkshire’s pre-tax profit from this Apple investment was over $100 billion.

The timeline goes like this: Berkshire started buying Apple around 2016, and the position climbed all the way to its peak, exceeding $170 billion. It was Berkshire’s largest single holding ever.

Between 2023 and 2024, Berkshire cut Apple’s position by about two-thirds. As of the end of last year, according to SEC filings, Berkshire held about 22.79 million shares of Apple, worth roughly $62 billion, still accounting for 22.6% of the entire investment portfolio and remaining the top holding.

Buffett said, Apple is better than any company Berkshire wholly owns.

BNSF, the rail company under Berkshire, has a market value higher than Berkshire’s Apple holding, yet Apple still ranks first on the holdings list. He also praised Apple CEO Tim Cook as a “fantastic manager,” saying he doesn’t know how Cook manages to get along with everyone around the world.

But when asked whether he would add to the position again, Buffett gave a conditional answer: it’s not impossible. If Apple’s price drops to a certain level, Berkshire would buy in large amounts. But not now—“not in this market.”

Apple has already fallen more than 14% from its high this year, but in Buffett’s view, it’s not yet the price he’s willing to act on.

3. Dropped 50% three times—what is this now ===================

U.S. stocks haven’t looked great this year. As of the day of the interview, the Dow is down about 5% year-to-date, the S&P 500 is down about 6%, and the Nasdaq is down about 9%. Apple itself is also off more than 14% from its year-to-date high.

Buffett’s reaction was: there’s nothing to get excited about.

He said that since he took over Berkshire, the company’s stock price has fallen by more than 50% at least three times. Compared with those, this level of decline is really not a big deal.

He also didn’t show any intention to move aggressively. For him, the current market is still far from those historic moments that “created big opportunities.”

In just a few sentences, he’s saying both “don’t panic” and “don’t expect me to bargain-hunt right now.”

4. The inflation target should be zero ==========

When asked whether the Federal Reserve currently worries more about inflation or employment, Buffett didn’t pick a side directly. He said something bigger: he wants the Federal Reserve’s inflation target to be zero.

His logic is that once you say 2% inflation is tolerable, the compounding effect of that number over the long term is astonishing. And for ordinary people, if you save money and earn 2% interest, you also have to pay taxes on that 2%—meaning your purchasing power is actually going backwards.

Buffett also said that compared with employment data, he cares more about the dollar’s position as a global reserve currency and about the stability of the banking system.

He praised Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s decisive actions during the COVID outbreak in March 2020, saying that if it had been delayed by two or three more weeks, it would have been a disaster: “Once the dominoes start falling, the speed at which they fall is faster than anyone thinks.” In Buffett’s mind, Powell and Paul Volcker—who tamed inflation with violent rate hikes in the 1980s—are the two most respectable people in Federal Reserve history.

However, he also isn’t without criticism of the Federal Reserve. A 2% inflation target, in his view, is a mistake—you’re basically telling everyone that saving money is worse than spending money.

5. The charity lunch is back =========

What made Buffett change his mind was the death of one person.

In 2024, Cecil Williams, founder of the Glide Foundation, passed away. Glide is a San Francisco charity that helps people experiencing homelessness. Buffett’s ex-wife Susan volunteered there for a long time. Since 2000, Buffett has auctioned off the chance to have lunch with him every year, with all proceeds donated to Glide. The lunch ran for 22 years. After the last edition in 2022, Buffett said he would no longer hold it.

Image: The person in the middle, i.e., Cecil Williams

But Cecil’s death made him change his mind. Buffett said Cecil, when he passed, believed Glide should not disappear.

This time’s new lunch format has changed.

Buffett will no longer attend alone—the pairing will be NBA four-time champion Stephen Curry and his wife Ayesha Curry. The auction begins on May 7 on eBay, with a starting bid of $50,000. The winning bidder may bring up to seven guests, and on June 24 they will go to Omaha for lunch with three people. Half of the auction proceeds will be donated to Glide, and half will be donated to the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, which was founded by the Currys—a nonprofit that helps young people in Oakland.

The last time a competitive bid related to the crypto industry happened was in 2019, when Tron founder Justin Sun spent $4.57 million. After that, Buffett donated the Bitcoin that Justin Sun gave him.

6. No more contact with Gates ========

This is Buffett’s first time publicly discussing Bill Gates since stepping down.

He said that ever since related Epstein documents were released, he hasn’t spoken to Gates again. The exact quote is: “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 he doesn’t want to be subpoenaed to testify.

Buffett and Gates’ relationship has lasted for decades. In 2010, the two jointly launched The Giving Pledge, calling on the world’s richest people to commit to donating most of their wealth to charitable causes. Since 2006, Buffett has donated more than $43 billion in total to the Gates Foundation.

Gates’ involvement with Epstein began in 2011, which was three years later than Epstein’s guilty plea in 2008 for sexual crimes in Florida. Since the end of last year, the U.S. Department of Justice and Congress have gradually made a large number of related documents public. Emails and photos between Gates and Epstein have also been exposed.

According to an earlier report by The Wall Street Journal, this February Gates apologized to employees of the Gates Foundation, admitting to having had dealings with Epstein, and also admitting to an extramarital affair. Gates has accepted an invitation from the U.S. House Oversight Committee to testify on the matter, but the date has not yet been set.

When asked whether he is still good friends with Gates, Buffett’s tone was restrained. He mentioned the history of the two co-founding The Giving Pledge, but then immediately said:

“I think there’s no reason to talk more until things are sorted out.”

7. Nuclear weapons will be used sooner or later ==========

In the final part of the interview, they talked about Iran.

Buffett said that there are currently nine countries in the world with nuclear weapons. During the Cold War, there were only two— the United States and the Soviet Union— and everyone was already tense beyond belief. But back then, the decision-makers on both sides were at least rational. Now, the situation is completely different.

He specifically mentioned Iran and North Korea. He said the most dangerous scenario is when the person controlling the nuclear button is about to die, or is facing enormous humiliation. In this kind of situation, no one can predict what someone will decide.

When asked what he would advise if he were an adviser to the U.S. president on how to handle Iran’s enriched uranium issue, Buffett didn’t provide specific guidance. Instead, he said something that sounds like fatalism: In the next one hundred years—maybe within two hundred years—nuclear weapons will be used. He doesn’t know exactly how it happens, but he thinks it’s a probability issue. The more countries that have nuclear weapons, the higher the probability.

As for whether Iran should have nuclear weapons, he only said one thing: if Iran gets a nuclear bomb, it will be harder than if it didn’t.

For a 95-year-old who has seen the end of World War II, the entire Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the dissolution of the Soviet Union… the judgment left at the end of the interview is thought-provoking.

This interview lasted about an hour and a half. They talked about everything they could talk about.

But the detail that most caught the author’s attention throughout the whole process is this: Buffett is 95, and it has been three months since he stepped down. Facing the camera, not a single sentence was about “looking back” or “summarizing a lifetime.”

All the words are looking forward.

Whether Apple should be bought or not, how the Fed’s targets should be set, how Iran’s situation will develop, what to do with a new charity lunch… the host across from him, Becky Quick, gave him many chances to reminisce, and he never took any.

You rarely see someone who has already handed over power—yet remains more interested in the future than the past.

The stock wizard may still be a stock wizard even as he gets older. It’s just that before it was casting votes with money; now it’s casting votes with judgment.

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