How Warren Buffett's Apple Move Protected His Net Worth
While last week’s stock market selloff took its toll on the fortune of the world’s richest, one man has been largely able to weather the fluctuations brought on by the Trump administration’s trade policies.
Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has seen his net worth increase this year even as the vast majority of billionaires on Bloomberg’s index have witnessed their fortunes decline.
President Donald Trump‘s tariffs and shakeup of global trade has rattled global and domestic markets, with Wall Street tanking over the past few days, marking the worst days for the U.S. stock markets since 2020.
How Did Warren Buffett Protect His Fortune?
Buffett, often dubbed the “Oracle of Omaha” for his prophetic investment strategies, made headlines last year for selling off the majority of Berkshire’s shares in Apple even as the stock continued to chart significant gains.
Berkshire Hathaway owned over 900 million shares of Apple at the beginning of 2024, according to Business Insider, which represented just under half of its total portfolio in terms of value.
Over the course of the year, Buffett pared this back by about two-thirds, selling just over 600 million shares and reducing the proportion of Berkshire’s Apple holdings to just 22 percent of its total portfolio, per its most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Apple remains Berkshire Hathaway’s largest holding in terms of value.
Apple continued to climb in the fourth quarter following the sales, riding a post-election rally alongside other tech stocks to reach an all-time high closing price of $258.74 on December 26.
While it raised eyebrows at the time, Buffett’s move has now drawn praise, as Apple appears to be one of the main victims of the stock market slump brought on by the Trump administration’s trade policies.
Its reliance on components and manufacturing from China, the world’s second-largest economy, have led many to assume that the company will feel the worst effect of the tariffs brought against America’s trading partners following Trump’s recent announcements
China’s finance ministry said Friday it would impose a 34 percent tariff on all U.S. goods starting from midnight on April 10.
Amid these fears, Apple has underperformed the wider stock market, shedding 24.7 percent in the year-to-date ahead of Monday’s market open, according to Yahoo Finance. This compares to the S&P 500, which has fallen 13.7 percent.
Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffett is seen during an interview in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 7, 2018.
Nati Harnik/AP Photo
Despite being down $10.1 billion as a result of Friday’s selloffs, Buffett is up $12.7 billion in the year to date, the only individual in the top 10 of Bloomberg‘s billionaire’s index to enjoy this distinction, with many on social media now praising the decision to wind down Berkshire’s stake in Apple.
Retaliation from China and America’s other trading partners is expected to add to Apple’s difficulties. On Saturday, France’s Economy and Finance Minister Eric Lombard suggested the European Union (EU) could respond to the latest tariffs by imposing additional regulations on Big Tech, which would impact Apple as well as other companies such as Microsoft and Google.
Berkshire Hathaway sold $134 billion worth of equities in 2024 while building up a record $334 billion in cash, per Fortune, much of which is now in short-term Treasury bills.
What People Are Saying
Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives, in a note shared with Newsweek, said: “The tariff economic Armageddon unleashed by Trump is a complete disaster for Apple given its massive China production exposure. In our view, no U.S. tech company is more negatively impacted by these tariffs than Apple with 90% of iPhones produced and assembled in China.”
X, formerly Twitter, account, The Titan Traders, posted last week: “So funny everyone was mocking Warren Buffett and calling him senile for allocating a record amount of his portfolio to cash during the run to all time highs, but nobody doing that any more after seeing the market implode daily.”
Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank, in comments shared with Newsweek: “If permanent, higher tariffs would erode the value of assets on corporate America’s balance sheets, forcing businesses to cut hiring and investment. The U.S. economy has entered onto a dangerous path. The further it goes, the higher the risk of lasting damage.”
Warren Buffett, in his annual letter to shareholders in February, wrote: “Despite what some commentators currently view as an extraordinary cash position at Berkshire, the great majority of your money remains in equities. That preference won’t change. While our ownership in marketable equities moved downward last year from $354 billion to $272 billion, the value of our non-quoted controlled equities increased somewhat and remains far greater than the value of the marketable portfolio.”
He added: “Berkshire shareholders can rest assured that we will forever deploy a substantial majority of their money in equities – mostly American equities although many of these will have international operations of significance. Berkshire will never prefer ownership of cash-equivalent assets over the ownership of good businesses, whether controlled or only partially owned.”
President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday: “THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN. HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
What Happens Next?
The stock market has opened to another drop on Monday, following last week’s historic selloffs, with the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite all down around 4 percent in early trades.