Ten years after Warren Buffett committed roughly a tenth of Berkshire Hathaway's capital to Apple, the position has delivered a pretax gain of $150 billion on the original $35 billion outlay, a return that underscores the power of concentrating on a single, durable business.
The original commitment
In the first quarter of 2016, with Apple shares trading near $25 and the stock at a decade-low valuation of ten times earnings, Berkshire bought 9.8 million shares. Buffett later described the move at the 2026 annual meeting as a deliberate allocation of about 10% of the conglomerate's resources to a manager he barely knew at the time, Tim Cook.
The peak and the pullback
By the end of 2017 Apple had become Berkshire's largest holding at roughly 15% of the portfolio. Six years later the stake swelled to $174 billion, half of a $347 billion portfolio. Buffett then trimmed the position, citing discomfort with a single name commanding 50% of assets. The holding now sits at $66 billion, or 22% of the total.
What the numbers reveal
The $185 billion figure Buffett cited in May includes dividends, realized gains and paper profits. It implies a compound annual return that dwarfs the S&P 500 over the same span. In July he told CNBC the profit on the trade exceeded $100 billion. The initial entry at a depressed multiple illustrates Buffett's maxim: buy a great business at a fair price, not a fair business at a great price.
The Cook factor
Buffett has repeatedly credited Cook for the outcome, telling shareholders the former operations chief turned the allocated capital into the $185 billion result. He called Apple his "third business" alongside insurance and railroads as early as 2020. The enduring moat, including ecosystem lock-in, pricing power and capital return discipline, validated the conviction to hold for a decade rather than trade around the position.