Warren Buffett's Fortune Gains as Elon Musk Fumbles

Warren Buffett’s net worth increased in 2022, and he rose to rank as the fifth richest man in the world.

Buffett’s fortune fell by only $1.48 billion, a performance that outpaces four tech titans, including current and former CEOs Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Larry Ellison.

Buffett’s net worth had risen to $107 billion as of Jan., 1, according to the Bloomberg indeks Bloomberga which calculates the fortunes of billionaires and updates them after the close of the stock market trading day. The stock market traded on Dec. 30, but was closed on Jan. 2 in observance of the New Year’s holiday.

The stock market faced a brutal year as tech stocks sunk, but Buffett’s investments performed better and enabled him to close the gap with Musk, who lost the title of the world’s richest man.

Musk now ranks as the second richest man after his fortune plummeted by $133 billion to a net worth of $137 billion. He is now running Twitter and electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla TSLA - Preuzmite besplatni izvještaj.

The massive loss in his net worth occurred as fears of inflacija, slabija ekonomija i odvraćanje pažnje izvršnog direktora od kupovine Twittera, doveli su do pada akcija Tesle.

The fortune of Microsoft founder Bill Gates fell by $28.9 billion and is valued at $109 billion.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, ended the year with a loss of $85.4 billion while his net worth stands at $107 billion. He is ranked as the sixth richest man by Bloomberg.

Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage via Getty

Berkshire Hathaway’s Bought Semi, Oil, Bank Stocks

The conglomerate run by Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, purchased over $4 billion in shares of Taiwan Semiconductor TSM - Preuzmite besplatni izvještaj during the third quarter while it sold some shares of two bank stocks – Bank of New York BK - Preuzmite besplatni izvještaj i US Bancorp USB - Preuzmite besplatni izvještaj, prema podnesku za američke vrijednosne papire i berzu od 14. novembra.

Behemot kupio dionice naftnog giganta Chevron CVX i Occidental Petroleum OXY - Preuzmite besplatni izvještaj during the third quarter and also acquired 60 million shares of Taiwan Semiconductor, which is a contract producer of semiconductors globally.

Berkshire je povećao svoj udio u Chevronu za 3.9 miliona dionica na ukupno 165.3 milijuna dionica, a također je kupio još 35 miliona dionica u Occidental Petroleumu kako bi povećao svoj udio na 194.3 miliona dionica.

Musk’s Many Challenges

Since Musk acquired Twitter, he has been in constant battle with the company’s employees and advertisers. He fired 50% of the staff immediately, including the CEO and CFO. Hundreds more left the company after Musk set a deadline for them to commit to lengthy hours, weekend work and a “hardcore” attitude, or leave.

Musk even launched a fight with Apple AAPL - Preuzmite besplatni izvještaj because he disliked the fee the tech behemoth charges for purchases made in apps distributed in its app store- taking a 30% cut.

U svojoj posljednjoj svađi, Musk je tvrdio da je Apple prijetio da će "zabraniti" Twitter iz svoje prodavnice za iOS aplikacije, ali nije naveo razlog.

Musk also tweeted that Apple had “mostly stopped advertising” on the social media platform.

Apple remains Berkshire Hathaway’s top stock holding and the number of shares did not change during the quarter. Berkshire owns 895 million shares that make up 40% of the portfolio.

Izvršni direktor Applea Tim Cook rekao je za CBS News 15. novembra da je moderiranje sadržaja na Twitteru za govor mržnje kritično.

„Oni kažu da će nastaviti da se umeravaju“, rekao je on. “Računam na njih da će to nastaviti raditi.”

Tviter je Musk kupio za 44 milijarde dolara 27. oktobra, za šta je čak i on priznao da je to visoka procena za kompaniju.

Since taking over Twitter, Musk reactivated the račun bivšeg predsjednika Donalda Trumpa after 22 months of suspension, following the events of Jan. 6, 2021, on Capitol Hill. He also reaktivirano nalozi zabranjeni zbog komentara protiv trans i širenja govora mržnje.

Shares of Tesla have plummeted by 69.2% during the past year as investors are wary of the time Musk spends on Twitter. Shares of Tesla started at $352.26 in 2022.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who has been bullish on Tesla, recommends that Musk step down as CEO of Twitter as part of an overall strategy “to change negative sentiment around the Tesla story.”

“Name a CEO of Twitter by the end of January,” Ives said. “Stop selling stock and no more boy that cried wolf or Pinocchio situation,” and “formally adopt a 10b5-1 plan so investors know there is no major selling block around the corner as Musk sold roughly $40 billion of TSLA stock the past year.”

Source: https://www.thestreet.com/investing/stocks/warren-buffett-fortune-gains-as-elon-musk-fumbles?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO&yptr=yahoo