The 2024 Berkshire Annual Shareholders' Meeting was held in Omaha on May 4, local time. The current shareholders' meeting was also the first time since the death of his old partner Munger. Stock god Buffett made his first solo appearance. Bill Gates, Cook and many other business leaders appeared at the conference.

Tens of thousands of shareholders flocked to Omaha to meet the annual Investors Spring Festival Gala. Buffett is sought after by many investors, stemming from the investment myth he created: from 1965 to 2023, Berkshire's cumulative increase was more than 40,000 times, equivalent to an annualized return of 19.8%, far exceeding the performance of the S&P 500 index during the same period.

Buffett's big move in 2023: increasing the Japanese stock market. Berkshire's shareholding ratio in Japan's top five trading companies has risen from 5% in 2020 to 9%; continued to increase positions in energy stocks such as Occidental Petroleum and Chevrolet in recent quarters; and reduced Apple holdings.

After Berkshire reduced its Apple holdings by about 10 million shares in the fourth quarter of 2023, it continued to reduce its holdings by 116 million shares in the first quarter. Berkshire held $135.4 billion worth of Apple shares at the end of the first quarter, equivalent to 790 million shares, down 12.8% from 906 million shares at the end of 2023.

Despite this, Apple remains Berkshire's largest holding. During the shareholders' Q&A session, Buffett said that Apple CEO Cook is as good as Jobs, and that the iPhone is one of the greatest products, and probably the greatest product ever. Apple will most likely remain Berkshire's largest shareholding by the end of 2024, and unless a major event occurs, Apple will continue to be Berkshire's largest investment in the stock sector.

As to why Apple's holdings were reduced, Buffett pointed out that it was due to tax reasons after the investment received a considerable return, rather than any judgment on Apple's individual stock over the long term.Buffett said that almost everyone I know is focusing on how not to pay taxes. Of course, tax avoidance is reasonable. We don't mind paying taxes. Our current federal tax rate is 21%, while the tax rate facing Apple is 35%, or even 52%.

Cook has attended Berkshire shareholders' meetings many times, and is here again this year, sitting in the front row with Apple's chief financial officer Luca Mestri.

Regarding the reduction of Berkshire's Apple holdings, Cook said to foreign media that he and Buffett had discussions about reducing their holdings. They had a long conversation. Berkshire is still Apple's largest shareholder. Apple is still Berkshire's largest shareholder so far, and he feels very good about this. Cook emphasized that it is an honor to have shareholders like Berkshire.

Although the management scale reached 347.358 billion US dollars at the end of last year, Buffett's holdings are quite concentrated.At the end of the first quarter, about 75% of Berkshire's fair value equity investment was concentrated in five companies: Apple, Bank of America, American Express, Coca Cola, and Chevron.

There was no change in the ranking of the five major stocks in the first quarter, and the market value of positions changed. Apple's shareholding value fell from 174.3 billion US dollars to 135.4 billion US dollars; Bank of America increased from 34.8 billion US dollars to 39.2 billion US dollars; American Express increased from 28.4 billion US dollars to 34.5 billion US dollars; Coca Cola increased from 23.6 billion US dollars to 24.5 billion US dollars; and Chevron increased from 18.8 billion US dollars to 19.4 billion US dollars.

At the end of the first quarter, Berkshire's cash reserves reached a record high of $189 billion.In response to the record cash reserves, Buffett said:

1. I think our cash and treasury bills will reach $200 billion by the end of this quarter, which is a reasonable assumption.We would love to spend this money, but we won't spend it unless we think what we're doing is very risky and will bring us a lot of money.

2. We won't use this money with the current 5.4% interest rate. Now the interest rate is so high, we only swing at the right time, but now many people swing no matter when, because they feel like they've been shorting out before, and they think they will always hit the right target. We won't need much more in return than before, and we can't find that many opportunities now.There aren't enough attractive targets right now for me to allocate that many assets to see if there are any changes later.

At the end of the Berkshire annual meeting, Buffett asked the staff to turn on the lights at the venue for the late Munger. In the conference room, 30,000 shareholders stood and applauded Munger to pay tribute to Buffett's business partner of more than 60 years.

Buffett said he only answered about 30 questions today. Thank you all for coming here thousands of miles to attend the conference. Buffett jokingly agreed with everyone. Everyone is welcome to attend the conference next year. Of course, first of all, you need to make sure you can attend the conference next year.