back to article Warren Buffett ditches his near-$1B Snowflake investment

Berkshire Hathaway has offloaded nearly $1 billion in Snowflake stock as it exits the former IPO chart-smashing cloud data warehousing and analytics specialist. According to a recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the investment company run by Wall Street legend Warren Buffett now holds no stock in …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'd be happy with 0.01 percent of what Mr. Buffett has.

    Staggering.

  2. IGotOut Silver badge

    Selling...

    ...before the bubble goes bang.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Selling...

      Yes, Buffett has said it's time to move into bonds. He, better than most, knows that many valuations are way above long term averages and corrections are coming. Some companies, of course, will go on to justify the valuations, but most won't and a good investor doesn't make money by "picking winners".

      1. cyberdemon Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: Selling...

        Yep.. Sell when the world is high on hype, buy when there's blood on the streets.

        It's the basic long-game investor strategy, but it certainly doesn't buy happiness, never mind peace

        1. Alan Brown Silver badge

          Re: Selling...

          The difficulty is knowing when to step off the elevator. Get it wrong and you'll still be onboard when the cables snap

          Greed makes people hold out for ever increasing (paper) profit - until suddenly it's no longer there and you'lre just left with the paper

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Selling...

            ...or Bitcoin (name your crypto coin)

          2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

            Re: Selling...

            Which is why it's better to get off early even if it means potentially missing out on even juicier returns. The stockmarket seems to be betting that central banks will quickly lower interest rates to post-2008 levels so that the debt-driven party can continue. Given the persistently high level of core inflation, this looks unlikely. In the same vein: profits and expectations have been way above long-term averages for a while, which begs the question how can that continue. But analysts tend to earn more money by peddling upbeat stories than pointing out risks.

            1. ShortMomentum

              Re: Selling...

              We can not forget that these analysts are taking from your profit stream in many cases, e.g. TipRanks etc.

        2. ShortMomentum

          Re: Selling...

          If this were the strategy you implement, surely you would own Intel stock. I cannot think of a company that has left more blood on the street than INTC.

      2. MachDiamond Silver badge

        Re: Selling...

        "He, better than most, knows that many valuations are way above long term averages and corrections are coming. "

        If there isn't much upside to holding, it can make more sense to limit risk and move some investments into cash so they can instantly take advantage of something else. It would be more painful to see those investments in a dip at the same time another stock was a awesome buy.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Selling...

      Or getting out because the leadership and changes at Snowflake haven't ticked Mr Buffet's three boxes of integrity, intelligence, and energy? Berkshire are normally in for the long term.

      Buffet (and business partner Munger) are legends - polite, modest, thoughtful, patient, intelligent, keen to teach and explain, owning their own mistakes. What a pity that they are so utterly unrepresentative of the clay-heads that populate most of the world's boardrooms, and in particular the entitled imbeciles running big tech.

      1. david 12 Silver badge

        Re: Selling...

        Buffet is on record as a hands-off manager who only invests in companies where he trusts the management. "CEO resigned" pretty much takes it out of that category

        1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

          Re: Selling...

          This has geneally been the case. But he did do some investments together with 3i who were less keen on such things. Things went well for a while and then they didn't.

      2. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

        Re: Selling...

        Buffet and integrity are you sure those two words go together ?

        He would invest with Hitler, Stalin and Putin if it was possible.

        1. ShortMomentum

          Re: Selling...

          He was just notoriously cheap, always looking for a bargain. I have not read anything that indicates he is void of morality. Have you? If you have, have you questioned the veracity of your source?

      3. DaveLE

        Re: Selling...

        Munger died in 2023, so I don't think he will be owning up to much

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ugh, and we have a snowflake instance too.

    The latest gizmo in data warehousing buzzword bingo; falling apart just like the one before did. Give me a nice clean cluster under our own control and a few instances of MySQL; and I will give you the world.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Yes, but without the right buzzword bingo, school ties and country club connections and a proven path to rob the punters, how will you ever get VC funding?

      Let alone a zillion dollar pump-n-dump IPO?

  4. Blackjack Silver badge

    Not So Special Snowflake Melted.

  5. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Coat

    "replaced by Sridhar Ramaswamy"

    Worrying enough.

    Wait till they get to Vivek Ramaswamy.

    Ciao, adios, I'm done.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wrong moniker

    It's the "Sage of Omaha", not the "Oracle of Omaha" as he's many things but not a money-grubbing yacht sailing c*nt.

    1. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

      Re: Wrong moniker

      What a loud of bullshit.

      Nobody got rich by overpaying employees, giving them double the national average for holidays, free healthcare and so on. No rich people get rich by exploiting people nothing more or less, so stop pretending otherwise.

      1. ShortMomentum

        Re: Wrong moniker

        The company that did that is Ford Motor Co. and their stock has been in the comode for a very long time.

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