A resonant warning to investors regarding the current picture of international markets was addressed by legendary investor Warren Buffett, who launched a fierce attack against speculation and the adventurous trends that, as he argued, dominate Wall Street, maintaining that real investment opportunities are becoming increasingly hard to find.
Specifically, in his interview with CNBC and Becky Quick, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway appeared particularly concerned about the situation prevailing in the stock markets, emphasizing that investment logic has yielded its place to gambling.
It is very difficult to find real value when everyone prefers to gamble, he stated characteristically.
It is not the first time that Buffett turns against today's Wall Street.
Already since May he had compared the stock market to a church in which they have put a casino, exercising, in this way, particular criticism of the explosive rise of one-day options, which he characterized as clear gambling.
The warnings of Buffett acquire particular weight given that American stocks are moving at historically high levels, despite the highly unstable geopolitical environment, which has been burdened by the ongoing energy shock caused by the continuing war with Iran.
At the same time, more and more analysts express fears that there is excessive speculation around companies linked to the explosion of artificial intelligence, AI, while derivatives, options, and leveraged ETFs further amplify investment extravagance.
Concurrently, retail investors are entering the markets en masse, buying shares of companies such as Micron, but also of the recently listed SpaceX, fueling the climate of euphoria even further.
In this environment, the 95-year-old billionaire, who has linked his name to the philosophy of value investing, underlined that truly great investment opportunities now appear very rarely and require immense patience and discipline.
There are periods where opportunities appear so quickly that you find it difficult to utilize them all.
And there are other periods where you are considered very lucky if you find even one good investment within two years. Normally, this second situation is what should prevail, he reported.
However, as he added, human nature operates differently.
People love gambling so much, that there is more money in cultivating gamblers than investors, he noted meaningfully.
I decided the huge investment in Alphabet
Particular interest was also presented by his revelations regarding the large investment of Berkshire Hathaway in Alphabet.
Buffett clarified that this specific decision was exclusively his own initiative and not of the new chief executive officer, Greg Abel.
I started it, he stated characteristically, giving for the first time a public explanation of how Alphabet evolved into one of the largest technology holdings of Berkshire Hathaway.
At the same time, he clarified that there is complete understanding with his successor.
I do nothing that he does not approve and he does nothing that I do not approve.
We discuss constantly, but he is the one who makes the final decisions, he reported.
Berkshire revealed for the first time a stake in Alphabet in the third quarter of 2025 and has significantly increased its position since then.
Earlier in the year, it also participated in a private placement of 10 billion dollars by Alphabet, aimed at financing the company's huge investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure.
It is recalled that Buffett had announced in May of the previous year that he would step down from the management of Berkshire Hathaway, officially handing over the reins to Greg Abel at the beginning of the current year.
He himself repeated his core investment philosophy.
The secret in investing is to find businesses that will yield high returns on capital for a long period of time.
At the same time, he admitted publicly that he made a serious mistake because he did not invest much earlier in Alphabet.
As he recalled, already since 2018 he had expressed his regret, recognizing that, although he had observed the immense success of Google through Geico, which constituted an early client of the company's advertising platform, he was not convinced then that it would evolve into the long-term dominant force of the technology sector.
Despite the large size of the investment, Buffett clarified that Alphabet is not included among his top holdings.
I would say that I like it less than four or five other businesses we own, he said.
At the same time, he warned that the greatest danger for Google and all its competitors is the astronomical investments currently required by the battle of artificial intelligence.
The real question for Google and all its competitors is that they are now spending hundreds of billions of dollars. This is real money. This is now the game they play. In software, there were no such requirements.
Apple: Remains among his favorite investments
Despite the developments around the departure of Tim Cook from the position of CEO of Apple, Buffett clarified that Apple still constitutes one of his most favorite investments and remains the largest holding of Berkshire Hathaway in a listed company.
I know much more today about Apple than I knew many years ago, he reported.
Apple has exceptionally smart people across the entire world, who work so that the future of the company is just as bright as its past.
Vote of confidence in Warsh for the Fed
Warren Buffett expressed his confidence toward the new chairman of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, characterizing him as a good choice.
Warsh conducted the first meeting of the Fed in June, keeping interest rates unchanged, while simultaneously presenting changes to the strategy of the central bank.
During his testimony to Congress on Tuesday, he promised a regime change in monetary policy and pledged to tackle inflation.
I believe he will do the best he can to achieve the goals assigned to him, namely 2% inflation and maximum employment, stated Buffett.
He cannot be perfect, just as I could not be perfect in managing investors' money and achieving exceptional returns, he added.
Kevin Warsh took over the Fed in May, following his nomination by President Donald Trump and his approval by Congress, while he was scheduled to testify again before the Senate Banking Committee.
He truly cares about the country. This was also true for many of his predecessors. It does not mean that all their decisions were right, because many times the decisions are exceptionally difficult, he underlined.
On Bill Gates and Jeffrey Epstein: It was abhorrent, but people make mistakes
Buffett also positioned himself regarding the relationship of Bill Gates with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, characterizing the specific case as abhorrent.
His statement was made after his decision to exclude the Gates Foundation from his large annual charitable donations.
I read a great deal since January 1 about what happened between Bill and Epstein. It was abhorrent. He made mistakes. I have made mistakes too, whether hiring people or choosing friends, only to discover later that they were not who I thought.
I did not find anything that goes beyond what I could imagine that I too could have done, he stated.
Buffett, who maintains a friendly relationship with Gates for more than three decades, revealed that he studied extensively all available evidence regarding Gates's relationship with Epstein before deciding to radically change the strategy of his charitable donations.
Thus, all his donations this year were directed exclusively to four foundations linked to his family.
For many years, the Gates Foundation constituted the largest recipient of Buffett's annual donations.
From 2006 until today, he has donated more than 47 billion dollars in shares of Berkshire Hathaway toward the charitable foundation founded by the co-founder of Microsoft and his former wife, Melinda Gates.
Despite the developments, Buffett revealed that he still remains in regular communication with Bill Gates.
He came to Omaha about three weeks ago.
We spent about three hours together discussing. He plans to call me again and has already proposed a new meeting, he reported.
From his side, Bill Gates, in his statement to CNBC, characterized the multi-year support of Buffett toward his foundation as unprecedented, maintaining that it contributed to saving millions of human lives.
My gratitude toward Warren is indescribable and I deeply appreciate the time we spend together. I hope that we will have many more such meetings in the future, stated Gates.
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