Berkshire’s shareholder meeting: Key takeaways from Warren Buffett’s speech

6th richest person in the world Buffett Berkshire has run since 1965, whose dozens of businesses include Geco Car Insurance, BNSF Railroad, and consumer names like Dairy Queen and Fruit of the Loom.

Berkshire also owns $328 billion in shares, about half Apple Inc.

The main takeaways from here are Warren BuffettSpeech at the meeting of shareholders of Berkshire:

1. In his speech, Buffett criticized the handling of the recent turmoil in the US banking sector. He said the exposure of the debt ceiling could bring “upheaval” to the financial system.

The billionaire criticized how politicians, regulators and the press have handled the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank, saying their “very poor” messaging unnecessarily frightened depositors .

Buffett said berkshire Is cautious about banks and has sold some bank stocks in the last six months.

Buffett defended the size of Berkshire’s $151 billion Apple investment, saying consumers are less likely to value their $1,500 iPhones than, for example, their $35,000-a-second cars.

“Apple is different from our other businesses,” Buffett said. “It just happens to be a better business.”

Berkshire recently held a 5.6% stake in Apple, and Buffett said he could buy more.

Buffett named Greg Abel as his successor in 2021. The Oracle of Omaha confirmed he was “100% comfortable” with the decision and even hinted at a largely business-as-usual transition whenever that might happen.

On Occidental Petroleum, Buffett said he would not make an offer for outright control of the company, downplaying speculation that he was looking to offload shares of the energy producer after spending months.

On Berkshire’s investment strategy, Buffett said he is more comfortable with Berkshire Hathaway Inc putting capital in Japan than Taiwan because of tensions between the US and China.