Berkshire Hathaway invests $4.1b in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing stocks

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Berkshire Hathaway Inc, the investment company of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, recently unveiled a major stock investment that marked another big step that the firm took towards the tech sector. According to the company, it bought over $4.1 billion worth of stock in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC). Following the move, the TSMC stock skyrocketed, closing up 7.9% in Taiwan on Tuesday.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing shares blow up

Berkshire Hathaway’s interest in the company mage a significant impact on the investor sentiment for the chipmaking firm, which is considered to be the world’s largest chipmaker. Interestingly, prior to the investment, the company’s stock dropped to a two-year low, which happened just last month. The reason behind this is believed to be a major drop in chip demand around the world, so Berkshire Hathaway’s investment, and the rise in interest that followed, brought a massive positive change for the firm.

In its regulatory filing submitted this Monday, the company reported its US-listed equity investments as of September 30th, 2022. The filing revealed that Berkshire owns approximately 60.1 million shares of TSMC. However, it is not the only one with interest in the Taiwan chipmaker, as there are several other major players that have invested in the company’s stock, such as Singapore-based sovereign wealth fund GIC, as well as US asset managers Vanguard Group Inc and BlackRock Inc.

Berkshire’s filing also revealed other major investments, such as $297 million worth of stakes in a firm called Louisiana Pacific Corp, as well as a $13 million worth of stakes in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. However, the firm apparently exited an investment in a real estate firm called Store Capital Corp.

Berkshire takes another bet by investing in a tech firm

It is currently unknown whether it was Buffett who made the decisions to make these specific sales and purchases or his portfolio managers, but historically, large investments have usually been Buffett’s decisions. Apart from the size of the investment, the move is also noteworthy because Berkshire Hathaway usually does not make such massive investments in tech firms. In the past, it always preferred firms that had certain competitive advantages.

Experts such as Tom Russo, a partner at Gardner, Russo & Quinn, noted that the move indicates that Berkshire thinks that the world needs the chipmaker’s products. Russo added that there is a fairly small number of companies that can amass the capital needed to deliver semiconductors, which can be found in products of major corporations such as Nvidia, Apple, and Qualcomm.

These products are now central in a lot of people’s lives, so while there might be a drop in demand for the chips right now, this is likely to change eventually. So far, Berkshire has made several tech investments with mixed success. One of the bad calls that the investment firm has made in the past includes IBM Corp, but on the other hand, its investment in Apple was clearly the right move.

About Ali Raza PRO INVESTOR

Ali is a professional journalist with experience in Web3 journalism and marketing. Ali holds a Master's degree in Finance and enjoys writing about cryptocurrencies and fintech. Ali’s work has been published on a number of leading cryptocurrency publications including Capital.com, CryptoSlate, Securities.io, Invezz.com, Business2Community, BeinCrypto, and more.