Warren Buffett trumpeted his Apple bet and invited outgoing CEO Tim Cook to take a bow during Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholder meeting on Saturday.
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Greg Abel, who succeeded Buffett as Berkshire’s CEO at the start of this year, unexpectedly announced that the legendary investor and chairman would say a few words.
Buffett — sitting in the front row and fully embracing his retired status by wearing a sweater instead of his usual suit — began by saying the transition to Abel’s leadership had been “100% successful” with Berkshire’s new boss “doing everything I did and then some” and “doing it better than I did.”
The business icon, 95, then recalled his decision to turn over 10% of Berkshire’s resources to a person “not that well known at the time.” He was referring to Berkshire’s roughly $35 billion investment in Apple between 2016 and 2018, and the tech giant’s CEO, Cook, who announced he would step down earlier in April.
Business Insider’s Theron Mohamed was watching from the press box of the CHI Health Center in Buffett’s hometown of Omaha as the famous stockpicker spoke.
Buffett drew chuckles from the crowd when he joked that Berkshire had turned over management of the money to Apple to make itself “look good,” and that was its “preferred way of operating.”
He then underscored that Apple has turned that $35 billion, including dividends and both realized and unrealized appreciation, into $185 billion before tax.
“And I didn’t have to do a damn thing,” he quipped.
Apple remains Berkshire’s largest position, despite the company selling the majority of its stake over the past few years.
Buffett then reflected on Apple celebrating its 50th anniversary in recent weeks. He said that Cook “succeeded a legend” when he took over as CEO from visionary cofounder Steve Jobs in late 2011, and that only a “very few percentage points of American investors had even heard” of the new boss.
“When we made our investment and turned over 10% of the resources of Berkshire, we were turning it over for Tim, and I say he’s turned that into $185 billion or something pretax,” Buffett added, joking that he “won’t bother to compare his record to that.”
Cook has overseen a massive increase in Apple’s market valuation during his nearly 15 years in charge, from around $350 billion to $4.1 trillion as of Friday’s close.
He’s been widely credited with scaling Apple’s manufacturing and distribution of hit products such as the iPhone, improving its global supply chain, and catering to China’s mushrooming middle class.
“So I think it’s appropriate if Tim would take a bow and our shareholders would say thanks to him,” Buffett said.
Cook, sitting a few rows behind Buffett in front of the stage, stood up to cheers and applause, waving and clasping his hands together to thank the crowd.
Buffett has repeatedly heralded Apple as an incredible business and Cook as a world-class leader in recent years.
“Tim Cook has made Berkshire a lot more than I have made Berkshire,” Buffett said at last year’s meeting.
