Buffett's Apple

In the 2021 top 15 stock holdings announced in the 2022 letter to shareholders, Berkshire Hathaway held 908 million shares of Apple, which remained unchanged from the end of 2020. Buffett praised Cook as “a great person” in the letter.

At this year’s shareholders meeting, Buffett said that he is still interested in Apple, and his shareholding in Apple is also growing, hoping to own more equity in Apple. Buffett said that Apple’s buybacks in the past few years have brought considerable returns to Berkshire.

Personally, I think Apple’s moat lies in: synergy and privacy protection.

When you have multiple Apple devices in your hand, the synergy effect comes into play. It can be roughly divided into the following four categories:

1. Status synchronization: All software that comes with the device, such as Mail, Books, Photos, Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Reminders, and Notes, can synchronize status between devices through iCloud.

2. File sharing: Audio and video, pictures, and text can be shared between the same ID account.

3. Shared accessories: AirPods, keyboard and mouse can be switched between devices at will.

4. Functional assistance: Watch can be used to unlock Mac, assist iOS navigation, vibrate to remind when encountering turns and forks, and use iOS devices to assist in viewing health data such as ECG obtained by Watch.

Data involving user privacy, Apple is very restrained. For example: Amap and Baidu Maps have track records, but Apple Maps does not. Domestic input methods do thesaurus synchronization, but Apple’s built-in input method does not.

At this year’s shareholders meeting, Buffett and Munger still criticized Bitcoin.

Buffett attacked cryptocurrency again at the shareholders meeting, saying that unlike farms and apartments, Bitcoin does not produce value, and its price will only depend on how much the next person who buys it is willing to pay. Cryptocurrency may now seem to have magical attraction due to hype, but it has no production capacity itself.

Munger said at the shareholders meeting that I have encountered some things in my life that need to avoid very stupid and evil things, and things that will bring harm to others. I think Bitcoin occupies all three points. The first point is obvious, it is very likely that the value will eventually become zero. Bitcoin is not a productive asset, its value depends on how much the next person pays the previous person who owns Bitcoin. Now you see that a lot of commissions have been paid out, and there are many more. These are all gambling games and hype games that many people have participated in. But the money moves back and forth among different people, they just change the owner, just change its owner. Some people stand to gain, and some lose. But you can actually use this money to do a lot of things. Some things have value but cannot produce tangible assets.

Compared with Bitcoin, Buffett still insists that cash is like oxygen and will save a considerable amount of cash at any time. Only buy when you feel that the investment object is cheap.

When asked how to choose stocks when experiencing inflation, Buffett said that he may answer more than just (investing in) one stock. The best thing you can do in this is that you must be good at doing something. No matter what it is, the ability you possess cannot be taken away by others, and it is impossible to disappear because of inflation. In this way, others will always trade with you, and what they trade is your ability. So the best investment is to develop yourself. It is more important to become a better person in the second half of life than to show off wealth. This is consistent with his previous view. He believes: “Life is like a snowball. The most important thing is to find wet snow and a really long hill.”

Published at: May 1, 2022 · Modified at: Dec 11, 2025