Buffett's Berkshire totally exits its profitable stake in Chinese EV maker bought because of Munger

Berkshire Hathaway has wholly exited its highly profitable equity concern successful the Chinese electrical conveyance maker BYD.

In August 2022, Berkshire began to trim the 225 cardinal stock presumption it had purchased successful 2008 for $230 million.

That followed a 41% leap successful the worth of the presumption during that year's 2nd 4th to $9 billion.

By June of past year, Berkshire had sold astir 76% of its stake, bringing it conscionable nether 5% of BYD's outstanding shares.

By crossing beneath that level, Berkshire nary longer had to disclose consequent income nether the Hong Kong exchange's rules, truthful arsenic acold arsenic we knew the institution owned 54 cardinal shares.

A Buffett Watch reader, however, pointed retired that the Q1 fiscal filing by Berkshire Hathaway Energy, the subsidiary that held the shares, listed the worth of the concern arsenic zero arsenic of March 31.

A Berkshire spokesperson confirmed that the full BYD presumption has so been sold.

Based connected the concern values listed successful BHE's reports, the income continued aft the involvement fell beneath 5% past year.

Berkshire made its archetypal acquisition 17 years agone astatine the urging of Charlie Munger.

At the 2009 yearly meeting, helium told shareholders that adjacent though it looked similar "Warren and I person gone crazy," helium saw the institution and its CEO, Wang Chuanfu, as a "damn miracle."

It was an unthinkable call. BYD shares accrued by astir 3890% during the years Berkshire owned them.

Buffett has not explained successful item wherefore Berkshire started selling, but, successful 2023, he told CNBC's Becky Quick that BYD is an "extraordinary company" being tally by an "extraordinary person," but "I deliberation that we'll find things to bash with the wealth that I'll consciousness amended about."

Around the aforesaid time, Berkshire sold astir each of the company's Taiwan Semiconductor stake, astir $4 cardinal of stock, just months aft the shares were purchased as helium "reevaluated" the geopolitical hazard posed by Beijing's assertion that Taiwan is portion of China. "It's a unsafe world," helium said.

Warren Buffett has not been speaking publically successful the past fewer years astir his mostly wide governmental views, telling shareholders successful 2022 that immoderate radical get "sustainably mad" and "take it retired connected our companies," perchance harming employees and shareholders.

It is, however, tenable to presume that helium doesn't spot eye-to-eye connected astir issues with President Donald Trump.

But they bash agree, astatine slightest partially, connected 1 thing: U.S. businesses should not pursuit precise short-term goals.

This week, the president posted connected Truth Social that the SEC should let corporations to study net each six months, alternatively of the existent three-month requirement.

"This volition prevention money, and let managers to absorption connected decently moving their companies," helium wrote.

The SEC tells CNBC it is "prioritizing this connection to further destruct unnecessary regulatory burdens connected companies."

Buffett, who famously favors making decisions for the agelong run, has powerfully urged companies to halt providing quarterly earnings-per-share guidance.

A 2018 Wall Street Journal opinion piece co-written by JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon says, "In our experience, quarterly net guidance often leads to an unhealthy absorption connected short-term profits astatine the disbursal of semipermanent strategy, maturation and sustainability."

That happens, they said, erstwhile companies chopped backmost connected semipermanent beneficial spending to conscionable oregon bushed their ain short-term forecasts erstwhile net are affected by extracurricular factors they can't control.

They reason that "financial markets person go excessively focused connected the abbreviated term" and quarterly guidance "is a large operator of this trend."

There is, however, an important distinction.

Buffett and Dimon accent they are not against the reporting of net each quarter. They conscionable don't similar companies forecasting what those net volition be.

Companies, they said, should "continue to supply yearly and quarterly reporting that offers a retrospective look astatine existent show truthful that the public, including shareholders and different stakeholders, tin reliably measure existent progress." 

Berkshire's apical holdings of disclosed publically traded stocks successful the U.S., Japan, and Hong Kong, by marketplace value, based connected today's closing prices.

Holdings are arsenic of June 30, 2025 arsenic reported in Berkshire Hathaway's 13F filing on August 14, 2025, but for:

• Itochu, which is arsenic of March 17, 2025, and Mitsubishi, which is arsenic of August 28, 2025. Tokyo Stock Exchange prices are converted to U.S. dollars from Japanese yen.

The afloat database of holdings and existent marketplace values is disposable from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

Please nonstop immoderate questions oregon comments astir the newsletter to maine at alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, but we don't guardant questions oregon comments to Buffett himself.)

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Also, Buffett's yearly letters to shareholders are highly recommended reading. There are collected here connected Berkshire's website.

-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch