‘If you’re Apple, you’ve got very smart people’: Warren Buffett explains why he still backs company after Tim Cook exit

The 95-year-old investor said he has come to understand Apple better over the years and continues to like the company despite the leadership change.

“I know more about Apple than I knew many years ago,” Buffett said in an interview with CNBC. “If you’re Apple, you’ve got very very smart people all over the world shooting and trying to figure out how to make sure that that Apple’s future, the future is as bright as the past,” he told CNBC.

Buffett says no one could replace Tim Cook

Buffett made it clear that he viewed Cook as an exceptional leader and said there was no replacement Apple could have chosen that he would have preferred.

“Well, there was no move they could make that would replace Tim that I would have liked. I mean, if you got somebody with a Stradivarius play the violin for you, yes, I mean, don’t spend the next 300 years looking for another one. I mean, you have got one already,” Buffett said during the CNBC interview. When asked directly whether he still liked Apple, Buffett replied: “Yes.”

Buffett said competition remains a constant threat even for dominant companies. He pointed to the history of the US auto industry to show how quickly a market leader can lose its position.

“And look at the car companies. I mean, Henry Ford owned the car business for 30 – for 20 or 25 years, and he did, he brutally integrated like you cannot believe it. He got, drove costs down. He got the cost of the Model T down, I think, to $285. And he always was decreasing prices while increasing wages,” Buffett said.

But Ford eventually lost ground to General Motors, Buffett noted.

“And my friend Charlie Munger thought that General Motors was the – was going to be the dominant company. Who could imagine attacking their dealer fleet and everything they had going for them? And you have always got somebody shooting at you,” he said.

Investing in US

Buffett also explained on the long-term strength of the US economy and stock market, saying America has been an extraordinary place for investors. He noted that the Dow Jones Industrial Average was around 100 when he bought his first stock and has since climbed to about 52,000, delivering dividends along the way. “America has been a wonderful place to invest money. And the Dow industrials, when I bought my first stock, it just crossed 100. 100, and now it’s 52,000 or something, and you have got dividends in between and all kinds. Well, I mean, the village idiot could have made it from that point forward,” Buffett said.

Buffett says he initiated Berkshire’s Alphabet investment

Buffett also revealed that he, rather than Berkshire Hathaway’s new CEO Greg Abel, was the driving force behind the conglomerate’s recent investment in Alphabet.

“I initiated it,” Buffett said. “I am not doing anything that he doesn’t approve of. He’s not doing anything I don’t approve of. We talk all the time, but he is the decider.”

Berkshire first disclosed a stake in Alphabet during the third quarter of 2025 and has since expanded the holding. Earlier this year, the conglomerate participated in a $10 billion private placement by Alphabet to help fund the company’s artificial intelligence infrastructure. Berkshire currently owns roughly $31 billion of Alphabet stock.

Buffett said his investment approach remains focused on finding companies that can generate strong returns for a long period.

“The trick in life is to find — I mean investing — is to find businesses that are going to earn high returns on capital for an extended period of time,” Buffett said.

However, he said Alphabet is not among his very favorite Berkshire investments.

“I would say that I don’t like it as well as at least four or five other businesses that we own,” Buffett said.

AI spending is the ‘real question’ for Google and its rivals

Buffett pointed to the huge amount of money Alphabet and other technology companies are spending on artificial intelligence as a key question for investors.

“The real question with Google and all of its competitors now, because they’re all laying out hundreds of billions, and that’s real money,” Buffett said. “That’s the game they’re playing now. They weren’t playing that game with computer software.”

Buffett, meanwhile, said successful investing does not need to be complicated, pointing to the extraordinary long-term rise of the US stock market.

“America has been a wonderful place to invest money. And the Dow industrials, when I bought my first stock, it just crossed 100. 100, and now it’s 52,000 or something, and you have got dividends in between and all kinds. Well, I mean, the village idiot could have made it from that point forward,” Buffett said.

“And so I have been in the right game. If I’d been in wheat speculation, I mean, wheat has gone from, I don’t know whether it’s gone from $3 to $5 or something over 200 years. And it’s a pretty, it’s a very simple business, as long as you keep remembering that it’s simple and that making it complicated can, well, it’s just crazy. At that point, you’re gambling.”