Warren Buffett on Investing in China and Hong Kong | Berkshire Hathaway 2024

[Transcript]

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi, Mr. Buffett, this is Matthew Lai from China, Hong Kong. My question is, besides the electric car company, BYD, under what circumstances would you reinvest or reconsider investing in Hong Kong and China companies? Thank you.

WARREN BUFFETT: Well, our primary investments will always be in the United States. We do think it — (Applause)

Now, the companies we invest in the United States, American Express does business around the world. And no company hardly does business around the world like Coca-Cola. I mean, they are the preferred soft drink in, you know, something like 170 or 180 out of 200 countries. Those are rough approximations from a few years back, probably, but that degree of acceptance worldwide is, I think, almost unmatched. I can’t really think of any company that has it.

American Express has a position in the credit card deal, which I think is extremely strong. And part of that was one of the directors — and part of the reason for that is one of the directors that we introduced a few minutes ago, Kenneth Chenault. But it has strengthened dramatically over the last 20 years for a lot of reasons.

So we will — the BYD investment was a — well, we made the commitment in Japan, which I did five years ago, and that was just overwhelmingly, it was compelling. It was extraordinarily compelling. And we bought it as fast as we could, and we spent a year, and you know, we got a few percent of our assets in five very big companies. But that’s the problem of being our size.

But you won’t find us making a lot of investments outside the United States, although we’re participating through these other companies in the world economy. But I understand the United States’ rules, weaknesses, strengths, whatever it may be. I don’t have the same feeling for economies generally around the world. I don’t pick up on other cultures extremely well.

And the lucky thing is, I don’t have to, because you know, I don’t live in some tiny little country that just doesn’t have a big economy. But I’m in an economy already that has, you know, after starting out with half a percent of the world’s population, has ended up with well over 20% of the world’s output in an amazingly short period of time.

So we will be American-oriented. I mean, if we do something really big, it’s extremely likely to be in the United States.

Charlie, in all those years, there are only two times he’s told me that, you know, this one is really — you know, he would always go along with me and say, well, when I was suggesting something, he’d say, "Well, this is really not that great, but it’s probably the best you’ll come up with. So I’ll go along with the idea." (Laughter)

But Charlie twice pounded the table with me and just said, you know, "Buy, buy, buy.” And BYD was one of them, and Costco was the other. And we bought a certain amount of Costco, and we bought quite a bit of BYD. But looking back, he already was aggressive. But I should have been more aggressive in Costco. It wasn’t fatal that we weren’t. But he was right big time in both companies.

I’m aware of what goes on in most markets, but I think it’s unlikely that we’ll make any large commitments in almost any country you can name, although you know we don’t rule it out entirely. And I feel extremely good about our Japanese position, and we’ll have that — I don’t know how many years. Greg will be sitting with that at some point, and we couldn’t be happier with that.

But you really have to — we really have a different outlook in looking at — well, we look at your money, which we couldn’t bear to lose, and we feel that we’re far less likely to make any truly major mistakes in the United States than in many other countries.
 

Source: https://buffett.cnbc.com/2024-berkshire-hathaway-annual-meeting/

[YAPSS Takeaway]