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Buffett’s biggest flex was also Apple’s biggest compliment
At Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting, Warren Buffett basically wrote Apple a thank-you note in public. He said Berkshire’s roughly $35 billion bet on the iPhone giant has ballooned to about $185 billion pre-tax over the past decade, and he credited Tim Cook for the heavy lifting. Not exactly a bad cameo from the Oracle of Omaha.
The subtext for you as an investor: this wasn’t just nostalgia. Buffett’s comments landed right as Apple is tweaking the machine that made it such a cash-return monster in the first place.
The buyback era might be cooling off
Apple reportedly cut its share repurchases by about half in the March quarter, even with free cash flow up 28%. That’s a pretty big clue that the company may be less obsessed with squeezing every spare dollar back to shareholders.
A few things are driving the shift:
- Apple is moving away from its long-running goal of becoming net cash neutral
- R&D spending jumped 34%, which is a lot for a company that usually acts like it can do innovation on the cheap
- Higher component costs, including memory chips, may be making Apple want more balance-sheet flexibility
- AI arms races are expensive, and Apple may want a bigger war chest before stepping into the arena fully
A new chapter is starting to peek through
The leadership story matters because Cook is preparing to step down, with John Ternus lined up as the next CEO. That doesn’t mean Apple suddenly turns into a different company overnight, but CEO transitions can nudge capital allocation, M&A appetite, and product priorities in ways investors definitely notice.
Buffett framed Cook as the guy who quietly turned Apple into Berkshire’s biggest holding — a wild sentence when you remember Buffett once treated tech stocks like a suspicious buffet tray. Big picture: Apple isn’t just defending its old formula anymore. It looks like it’s preparing for the next one.