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Warren Buffett, the sixth richest man on the planet and historically a tech averse stock investor, has bought around $5 billion worth of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co shares. According to an SEC filing, Buffet’s investment vehicle Berkshire Hathaway said it bought around 60.1 million of the chip contract maker’s American depository shares in the calendar third quarter.
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The news sent shares in TSMC soaring, closing up 7.9% in Taiwan on Tuesday, as it boosted investor sentiment for the world's largest contract chipmaker, which saw its shares hit a two-year low last month due to a sharp slowdown in global chip demand.
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As the world's biggest contract chip manufacturer, TSMC is still reporting high levels of growth, with revenues beating its own estimates in its most recent trading results for Q3, growing 10% year-on-year to NT$613.14 billion ($20.23 billion).
Why it matters
Berkshire has had mixed success in technology. Its more than six-year wager during the last decade in IBM Corp (IBM.N) did not pan out, but Berkshire is sitting on huge unrealized gains on its $126.5 billion stake in Apple, which Buffett views more as a consumer products company. Berkshire disclosed the TSMC stake about 2-1/2 months after it began reducing a decade-old, multi-billion dollar stake in BYD Co, China's largest electric car company.
