Warren Buffett, who has long had an aversion to investing in tech companies, purchased 10 million shares of Apple earlier this year. The surprise investment comes five years after Buffett invested billions in IBM, his initial foray into that industry and departure from the type of companies Berkshire Hathaway has targeted for decades.
"I know about as much about semiconductors or integrated circuits as I do of the mating habits of the chrzaszcz," Buffett once wrote (chrzaszcz is a Polish word for beetle). "We will not go into businesses where technology which is way over my head is crucial to the investment decision."
Buffett has almost always stuck with what he knows -- investing in everything from soda to carpets, furniture and razors. The approach has helped make him America's most famous investor.
"To Buffett, computers were just tunnels that enabled him to reach other people who could play bridge," wrote author Alice Schroeder in Snowball, her biography of the investor."Buffett had a long-standing bias against technology investments, which he felt had no margin of safety."
The Apple investment appears especially curious given that Buffett's only prior tech investment -- IBM -- hasn't fared well so far. The stock's performance has trailed US markets the past five years.