November 14 (Reuters) – Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKa.N) said it bought more than $4.1 billion of shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (2330.TW)a rare significant foray into the technology sector by billionaire Warren Buffett’s conglomerate.
The news sent TSMC shares up more than 6% in Taiwan on Tuesday as it boosted investor sentiment for the world’s largest contract chipmaker, whose shares hit a two-year low last month. due to a sharp slowdown in global demand for chips.
In a Monday regulatory filing outlining its US-listed equity investments as of September 1. On Oct. 30, Berkshire said it owned about 60.1 million US depository shares of TSMC.
Berkshire also disclosed new $297 million stakes in building materials company Louisiana-Pacific Corp. (LPX.N) and $13 million in Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (JEFN). He came out of an investment in Store Capital Corp. (WAREHOUSE.N)a real estate company that agreed in September to be privatized.
The presentation did not specify whether Buffett or his portfolio managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, made specific purchases and sales. Investors often try to cash in on what Berkshire buys. The largest investments are usually Buffett’s.
While Berkshire doesn’t typically make big tech bets, it often prefers companies it perceives to have competitive advantages, often because of their size.
TSMC, which makes chips for companies like Apple Inc. (AAPL.O)Qulacomm (QCOM.O) and Nvidia Corp. (NVDA.O), posted a jump of 80% in quarterly earnings last month, but took a more cautious note than usual about the upcoming lawsuit.
“I suspect Berkshire believes the world can’t do without products made by Taiwan Semi,” said Tom Russo, a partner at Gardner, Russo & Quinn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who owns Berkshire stock.
“Only a small number of companies that can amass the capital to deliver semiconductors, which are increasingly important to people’s lives,” he added.
Berkshire has had mixed success in technology.
His bet of more than six years during the last decade in IBM Corp (IBM.N) It didn’t work out, but Berkshire has huge unrealized gains on its $126.5 billion stake in Apple, which Buffett sees more as a consumer products company.
Apple is by far the largest investment in Berkshire’s stock portfolio, valued at $306.2 billion.
Berkshire disclosed TSMC’s involvement about two and a half months after it began reducing a decade-long multimillion-dollar stake in BYD Co (002594.SZ)China’s largest electric car company.
In the third quarter, Berkshire increased its stake in Chevron Corp. (CLC.N)Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY.N)Celanese Corp. (CE.N)world paramount (FOR.O) and right (RH.N).
He also sold shares of Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI.O)Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK.N)General Motors Co. (GM.N)Kroger Co. (KR.N) and US Bancorp (USB.N).
Buffett, 92, has run Berkshire since 1965. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company also owns dozens of businesses including the BNSF railroad, auto insurer Geico, several energy and industrial companies, Fruit of the Loom and Dairy Queen. .
Reporting from Jonathan Stempel in New York; Edited by David Gregorio and Bradley Perrett
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