Warren Buffett said he prefers deploying capital in Japan instead of Taiwan, lamenting how geopolitics led his firm to cut stakes in the nation’s chipmaker giant.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is one of the best-managed and most important companies in the world, Buffett said at Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s annual general meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, on Saturday.
“There’s nobody in the chip industry that’s in their league,” he said.
Photo: Reuters
That did not stop Berkshire from slashing its holding in TSMC by 86 percent during the fourth quarter of last year, after reporting a US$5 billion investment in November last year — a move Buffett has blamed on rising tensions between Taiwan and China.
Buffett urged China and the US to keep a lid on their rivalry.
“It’s imperative that China and the United States both understand what the game is, and that you can’t push too hard,” he said at the meeting. “Both places are going to be competitive and both can prosper.”
Speaking at the same event, Buffett’s longtime business partner Charlie Munger called for “reciprocal kindness” between the two superpowers.
In Taipei, Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Chuan-neng (林全能) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday that the government would strive to let the world know that Taiwan is safe and stable.
TSMC would continue to spur technological development in Taiwan and maximize synergy in the nation, Lin said.
“Geopolitical developments cannot be controlled, but the government will continue to maintain TSMC’s core competitiveness in Taiwan and create the value of TSMC in the global industrial chain,” the Central News Agency (CNA) quoted Lin as saying.
National Development Council Deputy Minister Shih Keh-her (施克和) at the same meeting said that Buffett’s remarks represent an investor’s opinion, part of which affirms TSMC’s key role in the global supply chain, while also emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security, CNA reported.
Meanwhile, Buffett signaled a willingness to make further investments in Japan after recently raising stakes in trading companies there.
Berkshire owns 7.4 percent of those businesses, but would not go over 9 percent, he said.
Greg Abel, the heir apparent to Buffett who joined him on a trip to Japan last month, called them “an incredible” investment.
Buffett said he wanted to introduce Abel to executives from the five trading houses, recognizing that there would be continued investments and relationships there.
Japan’s trading houses — or sogo shosha — have deep roots in the country’s economy, dating back hundreds of years, and provide everything from food to energy.
“The Japanese thing was simple,” Buffett said. “I like looking at companies. I like looking at figures about companies.”
Additional reporting by staff writer
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