Buffett’s First Interview After Stepping Down: Now Is Not the Time to Bottom-Fish, Nuclear Weapons Will Eventually Be Used

Yesterday, Warren Buffett gave an exclusive interview to CNBC in the US.

This is his first lengthy sit-down interview since stepping down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway on January 1st this year. At 95 years old, having steered the company for sixty years and handed over the reins to Greg Abel, he could have easily chosen to stay silent.

But he talked about Apple, the Federal Reserve, Bill Gates and Epstein, Iran’s nuclear weapons, and also announced that his charity lunch, paused for four years, is making a comeback.

There was a lot of information. Let’s go through it point by point.

1. Went to Work on the First Day of Retirement

Buffett said he still goes to the office every day.

Before the market opens each day, he calls Mark Millard, Berkshire’s Director of Financial Assets, to discuss market dynamics and trading strategies. Millard’s office is about six meters away from his. After the call, Millard goes to execute. When asked if there have been any new moves recently, Buffett said yes, he made a “tiny” purchase, but didn’t reveal what it was.

He also drew a clear line: he won’t make any investment that Abel disagrees with. Abel receives a daily summary of investment activities.

This arrangement sounds like “the final decision-making power lies with the new CEO,” but viewed another way, it also means the 95-year-old predecessor is present every day, participating every day, trading every day, with his successor working just six meters away.

Buffett praised Abel repeatedly in the interview, saying Abel accomplishes more in a day than he did in a week at his peak, and that he would rather have Abel manage his money than any top investment advisor in America.

Nominally, he has retired. But this “retirement” seems more like a transition from CEO to the person sitting next to him.

2. Sold Apple Too Early, But Won’t Buy Now Either

In this interview, Buffett admitted one thing: Berkshire sold its Apple shares too early.

His exact words were: “I sold it too soon. But, I bought it even sooner, so.”

Translated, that means he sold early, but bought even earlier, so he still made a profit. According to him, Berkshire’s pre-tax profit on this single Apple investment exceeded $100 billion.

The timeline is as follows: Berkshire started buying Apple around 2016, with its position growing to a peak of over $170 billion, making it the largest single holding in Berkshire’s history.

Between 2023 and 2024, Berkshire reduced its Apple position by about two-thirds. As of the end of last year, according to SEC filings, Berkshire held approximately 22.79 million Apple shares, worth about $62 billion, still constituting 22.6% of the entire investment portfolio and remaining the largest holding.

Buffett said Apple is better than any business Berkshire owns outright.

Berkshire’s railroad company BNSF has a market cap higher than the Apple holding, but Apple still ranks first on the holdings list. He also praised Apple CEO Tim Cook as a “fantastic manager,” saying he doesn’t know how Cook manages to get along with everyone in the world.

But when asked if he would buy back into Apple, Buffett gave a conditional answer: it’s not impossible. If Apple’s price falls to a certain level, Berkshire would buy heavily. But not now, “not in this market.”

Apple has fallen more than 14% from its yearly high, but in Buffett’s view, it hasn’t yet reached a price he’s willing to pay.

3. Three 50% Drops, What’s This Little Dip?

The US stock market hasn’t looked great this year. As of the interview day, the Dow was down about 5% year-to-date, the S&P 500 down about 6%, and the Nasdaq down about 9%. Apple itself has retreated more than 14% from its yearly high.

Buffett’s reaction to this: nothing to get excited about.

He said that since he took over Berkshire, the company’s stock price has fallen by more than 50% at least three times. Compared to those, this current drop is nothing.

He also didn’t show any intention of making major moves. For him, the current market is still far from those historical moments that “created great opportunities.”

In a few short sentences, he was both saying “don’t panic” and “don’t expect me to buy the dip now.”

4. Inflation Target Should Be Zero

When asked whether the Federal Reserve is currently more worried about inflation or employment, Buffett didn’t pick a side directly but made a broader statement: he wishes the Fed’s inflation target were zero.

His logic is that once you say you can tolerate 2% inflation, that number compounded over the long term is staggering. Furthermore, for ordinary people, if you earn 2% interest on your savings and then have to pay taxes on that 2%, it means your purchasing power is actually declining.

Buffett also said that compared to employment data, he is more concerned about the US dollar’s status as the global reserve currency and the stability of the banking system.

He praised Fed Chair Jerome Powell for his decisive actions in March 2020 when the pandemic broke out, saying a delay of two or three weeks would have been a disaster. “Once the dominoes start to fall, they fall faster than anyone thinks.” In Buffett’s mind, Powell and Paul Volcker, who tamed inflation with aggressive rate hikes in the 1980s, are the two most respected figures in Fed history.

However, he does have criticisms of the Fed. The 2% inflation target is, in his view, a mistake; you’re essentially telling everyone that spending money is better than saving it.

5. The Charity Lunch is Back

What changed Buffett’s mind was the death of one person.

Cecil Williams, founder of the Glide Foundation, passed away in 2024. Glide is a San Francisco charity that helps the homeless. Buffett’s late wife, Susan, was a long-time volunteer there. Starting in 2000, Buffett auctioned off a lunch with himself annually, with all proceeds donated to Glide. The lunch was held for 22 years. After the final one in 2022, Buffett said he would stop.

Image: The person in the middle is Cecil Williams.

But Cecil’s death changed his mind. Buffett said Cecil passed away believing Glide should not die.

This time, the new lunch has a different format.

Buffett will no longer attend alone. His partners are four-time NBA champion Stephen Curry and his wife, Ayesha Curry. The auction begins on May 7th on eBay, with a starting bid of $50,000. The winner can bring up to seven guests to have lunch with the trio in Omaha on June 24th. Half of the auction proceeds will go to Glide, and the other half to the Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation founded by the Currys, a public welfare organization helping youth in Oakland.

The last auction related to the تشفير circle was in 2019, when Tron founder Justin Sun spent $4.57 million. After that, Buffett donated the Bitcoin Sun gave him.

6. No Longer in Contact with Gates

This is the first time Buffett has publicly spoken about Bill Gates since stepping down.

He said he hasn’t spoken to Gates since the relevant Epstein files were made public. His exact words were: “I don’t want to be in a position where I know things … to be called as a witness.” He doesn’t want to know too much and doesn’t want to be subpoenaed as a witness.

Buffett and Gates’ relationship spanned decades. In 2010, they co-founded “The Giving Pledge,” urging the world’s wealthiest individuals to commit the majority of their wealth to philanthropy. Since 2006, Buffett has donated over $43 billion to the Gates Foundation.

Gates’ association with Epstein began in 2011, three years after Epstein pleaded guilty to sex crimes in Florida in 2008. Since late last year, the US Department of Justice and Congress have released a large number of related documents, exposing emails and photos between Gates and Epstein.

According to previous reports by The Wall Street Journal, Gates apologized to Gates Foundation staff in February of this year, acknowledging having associated with Epstein and admitting to extramarital affairs. Gates has accepted an invitation from the US House Oversight Committee to testify on the matter, but a date has not been set.

When asked if he and Gates are still good friends, Buffett’s tone was restrained. He mentioned their past collaboration in founding The Giving Pledge but immediately followed up by saying:

“I don’t think there’s any need to say much until things are clearer.”

7. Nuclear Weapons Will Eventually Be Used

At the end of the interview, the topic turned to Iran.

Buffett said there are now nine nuclear-armed countries globally. During the Cold War, there were only two, the US and the Soviet Union, and everyone was already extremely tense. But at least the decision-makers on both sides back then were considered rational. Now, the situation is completely different.

He specifically mentioned Iran and North Korea. He said the most dangerous situation is when the person with the nuclear button is themselves dying or facing immense disgrace. In such a predicament, no one can predict what decision a person might make.

When asked what advice he would give the US President on handling Iran’s uranium enrichment issue if he were an advisor, Buffett didn’t offer specific suggestions. Instead, he made a statement that sounded like fatalism: within the next hundred, maybe two hundred years, nuclear weapons will be used. He doesn’t know exactly how it will happen, but he believes it’s a matter of probability; the more countries that possess nuclear weapons, the higher the probability.

Regarding whether Iran should have nuclear weapons, he only said one thing: if Iran gets a nuclear bomb, things will be much harder to handle than if it didn’t have one.

A 95-year-old man who has witnessed the end of WWII, the entire Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the collapse of the Soviet Union… The judgment he left at the end of the interview is thought-provoking.

The interview lasted about an hour. He covered everything that could be discussed.

But the detail that struck this writer the most throughout the process was this: Buffett is 95, has been retired for three months, and yet not a single word he uttered on camera was about “looking back” or “summarizing a life.”

Everything he said was forward-looking.

Should Apple be bought again? How should the Fed’s target be set? How will the situation in Iran develop? How will the new charity lunch be run?… The host sitting across from him, Becky Quick, gave him many opportunities to reminisce. He didn’t take any of them.

You rarely see someone who has already handed over power still more interested in the future than in the past.

The Oracle of Omaha, even in old age, might still be the Oracle. It’s just that before, he voted with money. Now, he votes with his judgment.

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