Berkshire Hathaway held its annual meeting on Saturday, with Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett weighing in on a variety of topics, including artificial intelligence, where he will eventually lead the portfolio, and its next potential investments. I worked on it.
But “Woodstock for Capitalists” was held without Buffett’s longtime business partner Charlie Munger, who died in November. A video tribute to Munger, who served as vice chairman, was shown during the meeting, and Buffett praised Munger as the best person to talk to about money management, according to remarks broadcast on CNBC.
“I have full trust in my children and wife, but that doesn’t mean I ask them what stocks to buy,” he said.
Artificial intelligence risks
Buffett also recalled seeing an AI-generated image of himself and warned about the technology’s potential to deceive people.
“Fraud has always been a part of America,” he told shareholders. “But if I’m interested in investing in fraud, this would be the highest growth industry of all time for me.”
He also likened AI to nuclear weapons, saying, “I don’t know how to put the genie back in the bottle, but AI is like that,” according to CNBC.
Successor prospects
Buffett, 93, already indicated three years ago that Greg Abel, vice chairman of non-insurance operations, would replace him.
But he suggested on Saturday that when a new management team would actually take over, “it won’t be that long of a wait.” Although he said he felt fine, he joked that he shouldn’t have signed a four-year contract.
Buffett also confirmed that Abel would be responsible for making investment decisions, saying that responsibility “should rest entirely with the next CEO.”
Buffett’s admission that he delegated some calls and that certain stock picks were made by others had raised questions about his strict adherence to Berkshire’s portfolio.
Investing in Canada?
Mr. Buffett has lamented the lack of attractive investment opportunities in recent years, and Berkshire’s vast stockpile of cash and cash equivalents has reached record highs.
In fact, it jumped from $167.6 billion at the end of the fourth quarter to $189 billion at the end of the first quarter.
On Saturday, Buffett reiterated that when it comes to investing, “We only swing at the pitches we like.” But he also said, “We don’t feel uncomfortable in any way putting money into Canada. In fact, we’re currently considering some things.”
Those comments came after he mentioned investments in Japanese trading companies and said it was “unlikely to make any big commitments in other countries.”
