“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened…” Warren Buffett, probably… 

Well, the history books have been written. After 17 years of riding shotgun with China’s EV darling, Berkshire Hathaway finally dumped the last of its BYD stake. A $230M bet in 2008 morphed into billions… one of the most lucrative trades of Buffett’s career. Charlie Munger was the guy screaming “buy, buy, buy” back when Lehman collapsed and BYD was basically a battery shop with a dream. Turns out Charlie was right, Buffett was rich(er), and Wang Chuanfu got the stamp of legitimacy that made him China’s 11th-richest man.

(Source: Giphy) 

But as of the past week, the love affair is over. Berkshire’s books now value BYD at zero. Gone. Deleted. Marked as “ex” in the SEC filing. BYD even posted a sad-boy Weibo thank-you note, basically praising Buffett for single-handedly keeping the company alive. With that said, this wasn’t a sudden decision by any means.  Berkshire trimmed its position for years, unloading at HK$200+ a share while BYD now trades closer to HK$113. Translation: Warren left the casino up billions while everyone else is still feeding coins into the machine.

(Source: Forbes) 

Plus, once you factor in that BYD is no longer the golden child it was when it leapfrogged Tesla in sales… Warren Buffett's ability to see the future once again makes his G.O.A.T. status even more “G.O.A.T.’d”. He saw the writing on the wall. And now, BYD is missing its 2025 target of 5.5M cars, Beijing hates the margin-crushing discount war, and Deutsche Bank’s calling for 4.7M units. In other words, Buffett did what every penny stock trader never does… get out while they are ahead.

What’s interesting about this whole investment though, is that this was Buffett breaking his own rule. “Never bet against America,” he always said. Well, he didn’t bet against America this time. He just stopped betting on cars entirely. Last year he reminded everyone that even Henry Ford “owned the world” before getting smoked two decades later. Point being: automakers look like winners until they don’t. And Buffett doesn’t play hero ball in industries that chew up margins and spit out corpses.

(Source: Giphy)

So now, Grandpa money bags Buffett is gone, and BYD has to prove it can keep momentum without the godfather’s blessing. Berkshire shifts its love to Japanese trading houses and other less sexy but steadier bets. And Buffett gets the last laugh: billions pocketed, zero bags held. Meaning, this may just be the most pivotal moment of BYD’s legacy… will they rise up on their own? Or has Buffett once again foretold the demise of yet another company? We shall see. Until next time, friends…

At the time of publishing, Stock.News holds positions in Tesla as mentioned in the article.