4 Industries That Don’t Get Warren Buffett’s Money
Written by
Caitlyn Moorhead
Edited by
Gary Dudak
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Warren Buffett isn’t called the “Oracle of Omaha” for nothing. With a net worth of around $158 billion, he’s the world’s most prominent and lucrative investor, thanks to his expert timing and knack for predicting the best buys. Though Buffett has announced his plans to retire at the end of 2025 (at age 95!), his impact on investment strategy is simply unmatched.
With that in mind, is there anything he won’t invest in? Actually, yes. Buffett instinctively knows when to hedge his bets, and if you like to follow his financial advice with your own investments, take a look below at the following industries that he doesn’t tend to give his money.
New Technology
Buffett is well known for avoiding investing in emerging technologies. For example, he called Bitcoin “a mirage” and warned investors to stay away. However, though he has expressed skepticism about cryptocurrencies, Berkshire Hathaway has invested in the Brazilian digital banking company Nu Holdings, which offers a cryptocurrency platform including Bitcoin, so technically the company does benefit indirectly from the cryptocurrency market.
Buffett not understanding tech has served him well in the long run, as he seeks to invest in companies that have a significant amount of certainty. This often reduces his risk because he doesn’t rely on other people’s opinions. He simply trusts his gut when predicting future earnings and the value of each business he puts his money into.
Gold
Buffett isn’t impressed when it comes to putting money into precious metals. As with his views on tech, it seems that he doesn’t see enough certain value in gold to risk investing in it and has remained one of its biggest skeptics. Despite the fact that Berkshire Hathaway did make a surprising foray into gold mining in 2020, it was short-lived and has since gone its separate ways, no doubt due to Buffett’s opinion on the matter.
Buffett wrote, “No one is an investor in gold: there are only speculators in the metal.” According to him, there’s essentially too much guesswork in predicting gold’s future value when compared to other commodities that can earn an investor immediate income. Simply put, he believes that investors in gold might get a store of value, however, investors in productive assets are gaining more in dividends over the years.
Airlines
Berkshire Hathaway has invested in airlines in the past. For example, it purchased $10 billion worth of stock in big names like Delta, American, United and Southwest Airlines, but sold these stakes just four years later in 2020. This was largely due to the impact of the pandemic and was likely completely supported by Buffett, as that sector has been one of his biggest criticisms, and he currently has no shares in airlines in 2025.
It is important to note that this opinion was probably formed in 1989 when Buffett and second-in-command at Berkshire, Charlie Munger, planned to invest $358 million in US Airways. Though it sounded like a sweet deal at the time, Buffett learned that US Airways just couldn’t build the revenue it needed. This was because US Airways incurred low-end costs equaling 12 cents per passenger mile, but then newcomer Southwest Airlines only racked up 8 cents per passenger mile.
It wasn’t an entirely disastrous attempt for Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway, as he was able to dump the stock and still make a profit. But for the most part, he never liked the thought of investing in that industry again.
Energy
We see so many TV shows and movies about Texas oil barons striking it rich in every way possible, to the point that investing in energy seems like the best idea in the world. Six years ago, Buffett made the same mistake when he disastrously placed a stake in Conoco Phillips.
According to Eric Fontinelle of Yahoo! Finance, Buffett’s rationale was likely that oil prices would keep rising. “Since crude oil prices were well over $100 a barrel at the time, oil company stocks were way up,” Fontinelle wrote. “However, this turned out to be a bad investment.”
This time, it wasn’t really that Buffett picked the wrong stock, but the wrong price. Berkshire Hathaway invested when the price was too high, meaning the company lost several billion dollars.
Final Take To GO: The Oracle’s Omen
The bottom line is that you should take caution with emotion when it comes to investing. As Buffett has said, “When investing, pessimism is your friend, euphoria the enemy.”
Even though Buffett doesn’t jump on industries like technology, he doesn’t shy away completely from the trendy and new. While he has invested in innovative products, it seems Buffett values certainty over excitement to this day.
Paul Sisolak contributed to the reporting for this article.
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