Warren Buffett’s Apple position remains the single largest holding in Berkshire Hathaway’s roughly $263 billion equity portfolio, accounting for nearly 22 percent of the total even after the conglomerate trimmed a substantial portion of the stake. The Oracle of Omaha first bought shares in 2016 and deployed about $35 billion through 2018. That outlay swelled to around $185 billion before tax once dividends and price appreciation are included, a result Buffett summarized to Business Insider with characteristic understatement: “And I didn’t have to do a damn thing.”
The regret trade
Buffett later told CNBC he had exited too early. “I sold it too soon. But I bought it even sooner,” he said, adding he would repurchase shares, just not at the prevailing market level at the time of the interview. He also quipped that Tim Cook had generated more wealth for Berkshire shareholders than Buffett himself had as chief executive. Veteran investor Peter Lynch echoed the sentiment in 2023, telling CNBC he regretted missing the run: “Apple was not that hard to understand. I mean, how dumb was I?”
Ternus takes the stage
Today marks the first Apple product event since John Ternus succeeded Cook as chief executive. The company has not confirmed details, but widespread reporting points to the debut of a foldable iPhone, a device expected to open like a passport and carry a price tag between $2,000 and $2,500. Nabila Popal, senior research director at IDC, told Reuters the handset will likely sell briskly despite the premium because Apple excels at manufacturing an aura of exclusivity and scarcity.
The revenue math
Popal projects the foldable could contribute more than $45 billion in revenue by the end of next year, a meaningful increment for a segment that still represents only a single-digit slice of the overall smartphone market. Whether that forecast materializes will be the first real test of Ternus’s product stewardship and of the thesis that Apple’s brand power can turn a niche form factor into a mainstream revenue driver.