Star investor Warren Buffett used the falling prices on the stock exchanges for acquisitions in the past quarter. With his investment fund Berkshire Hathaway, he invested several billion dollars in the stock market, according to a report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
While the 92-year-old reduced other investments, mainly in the financial sector, from July to September, he made a major commitment to the tech industry: Berkshire took advantage of the fall in the world’s largest chip order manufacturer TSMC and acquired around 60 million American depositary receipts from the Taiwan-based group . Assuming the papers were purchased at the average price, the stake would have cost around $5.1 billion.
The news of Buffett’s entry boosted the TSMC papers, because the move is taken by observers as an indication that the investor legend sees the bottom of the TSMC paper after the sell-off. Buffett has long stayed away from the tech industry, true to his creed of not investing in companies he doesn’t understand. However, this attitude has changed in recent years and the proportion of its investments in the tech sector has grown. The iPhone manufacturer Apple has remained its most valuable individual holding to this day, so now its exclusive supplier TSMC has also been added. Berkshire holds nearly 6 percent of Apple’s shares, which are valued at around $140 billion.
In addition to TMSC, Buffett’s company also bought US bank Jefferies and building materials maker Louisiana-Pacific Corp last quarter. At the same time, he increased his stake in the oil company Occidental Petroleum, which he now owns almost a third of. In return, Berkshire reduced exposure to financials by about $4.7 billion. For example, holdings in US finance companies Bancorp and BNY Mellon were reduced during the period.
