The 2024 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting started in earnest on Saturday with thousands of people readied in downtown Omaha for the main event: A Q&A with Warren Buffett.
The question-and-answer session gives shareholders the opportunity to hear from the “Oracle of Omaha” and one of the world’s richest people. This year, Buffett will be without his longtime partner Charlie Munger, who died in November at the age of 99.
Buffett will be joined on stage by Greg Abel and Ajit Jain, Berkshire’s vice chairmen for operations. The two, particularly CEO-in-waiting Abel, have had an increasingly visible roles in recent annual meetings.
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Buffett: Shareholder giving is ‘inspiring’
Buffett explained his belief that Berkshire shareholders are unique for their selfless philanthropy.
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A significant number of Berkshire shareholders, who are not members of wealthy families, contribute millions quietly. Buffett noted that Nebraska has its share of such folks.
Such people have deferred their own consumption, saved and given back, he said.
He called it “inspiring.”
Buffett: ‘In some respect, I talk to myself on investments’
When a child asked Buffett what he would do if he could spend one more day with Munger, it sent the investment guru down memory lane.
He said they enjoyed playing golf and tennis together, but said they had just as much fun, and perhaps more, when they had business failings.
“In a sense, there’s more fun having somebody who is your partner and digging your way out of a hole,” he said. “If I had another day with him, we probably would do the same things we did in the early days.”
In the end, Buffett said you should figure out who you like to spend time with and spend as much time with them as you can.
“Why wait until the last day?” he said.
When asked who his most trusted advisors are today, Buffett again invoked Munger’s memory.
“In terms of managing money, there wasn’t anybody better to talk to for many, many decisions than Charlie,” Buffett said. “It doesn’t mean I don’t talk to other people.”
But Buffett also expressed confidence in his own investment decision-making.
Remembering Berkshire Hathaway’s Charlie Munger through his quips and wisdom
“In some respect, I talk to myself on investments,” he said.
Protestors also joined the Berkshire gathering but outside the hall
Buffett: Artificial intelligence is like nuclear weapons
During the meeting’s shareholder Q&A, Buffett talked about his fears of its potential for fraud in artificial intelligence.
Buffett noted he recently saw a video of himself that even his wife or daughter could not have been able to tell was not him, saying something he definitely did not say.
He added the video was so convincing, “I would probably sent money to myself in some crazy country.”
“Scamming has always been part of the American scene, but… if I was interested in investing in scamming, it’s going to be the industry of all time,” he said.
He likened AI to nuclear weapons, saying once the genie is out of the bottle, he’s not sure it can be put back in.
“It has enormous potential for good and enormous potential for harm, and I just don’t know how that plays out,” he said.
39% operating earnings; Buffett ‘quite satisfied’
Buffett began the meeting by going over Berkshire’s first-quarter operating earnings reported earlier Saturday morning, up a robust 39% from the same quarter last year.
He also noted Berkshire’s record cash holdings in the report: $189 billion, up from $168 billion in the fourth quarter.
Buffett said the company’s cash pile could ultimately go over $200 million, the money accumulating largely because Buffett has not been able to find a suitable acquisition target to add to the Berkshire portfolio of operating companies.
“We’d love to spend it, but we won’t spend it unless it’s something with little risk that will make us a lot of money,” Buffett said.
He said the cash leaves Berkshire in position to strike if there’s a “big opportunity,” and said he remains always hopeful.
“We are quite satisfied with the position we are in,” he said.
One of the other big revelations in the quarterly report was that Buffett and Berkshire had sold 13% of its shares of Apple stock, roughly $20 billion worth.
Buffett acknowledged that Berkshire “sold a little Apple this year,” but he downplayed the significance of it. He said that Apple is and likely will continue to be Berkshire’s largest stock holding.
Opening movie traces Munger/Buffett partnership
Even before the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting began Saturday, Munger’s absence was felt.
The traditional annual movie that plays just before the meeting’s start was entirely dedicated to Munger, the Warren Buffett confidant and sidekick.
The movie told the story of Munger’s life growing up in Omaha and including some of his most famous quips from annual meetings and interviews.
At one point, the movie showed famous pairs from popular culture like Siskel and Ebert, Captain Kirk and Spock, Ernie and Bert, Beavis and Butthead, Gilligan and the Skipper, ending with a series of pictures of Munger and Buffett.
Speaking to how close the two were, Buffett at one point said he and Munger were “like twins separated at birth and reunited.”
The movie ended with Buffett again crediting Munger as the “true architect” of Berkshire’s success.
At the end of the movie, Buffett said of Berkshire: “It lives beyond his lifetime and will live far beyond mine.”
When the meeting then opened, instead of Munger, it was Abel, Berkshire’s CEO in waiting, sitting next to Buffett, with Jain next to him. Abel and Jain are Berkshire’s vice chairman overseeing its business operations.