Buffett's Apple Bet Nets $122,400 Return, But Can It Repeat?
Warren Buffett's Apple investment has been a subject of interest in recent conversations, and for good reason. If someone had invested $10,000 in Apple stock a decade ago and reinvested dividends along the way, they would now have around $122,400.
This impressive return makes one wonder if Buffett's bet on Apple was wise, especially considering Berkshire Hathaway only started buying Apple shares in 2016. The company's position in Berkshire's portfolio has grown significantly since then, making up as much as 40% of the stock portfolio at its peak. Although it has since been trimmed down to around 20%, it remains the largest single investment in Apple stock.
Buffett's interest in Apple began with a personal anecdote - he noticed how upset a close friend was about losing his iPhone and this stuck with him. This led Buffett and his team to build Apple into Berkshire's biggest equity position, which Buffett describes as 'a wonderful business' that they own a lot of.
The company's impressive returns over the last decade owe a significant part to its buyback strategy. Between 2016 and the end of 2025, Apple repurchased around $755 billion worth of its own stock, shrinking the share count and lifting earnings per share. This pace of buybacks, combined with Buffett's initial bet and Apple's lineup of popular products like iPhone, AirPods, and the Apple Watch, has contributed to the company's impressive returns.
However, not everyone is optimistic about Apple's future prospects. Companies of its size typically grow slower than smaller ones, and a recent shift towards running AI workloads on Mac Mini and Mac Studio machines rather than cloud computing could impact the company's growth trajectory.