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- Warren Buffett touted Tim Cook’s rich understanding of the world in a recent interview.
- The investor said the Apple CEO lacks Steve Jobs’ design chops, but excels in other ways.
- Cook has praised Buffett and celebrated Berkshire Hathaway’s backing in the past.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Warren Buffett praised Apple CEO Tim Cook’s diplomatic skills and lauded his deep knowledge of global supply chains in a recent Bloomberg interview.
“Tim may not be able to design a product like Steve,” the billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO said, referring to Steve Jobs, the late Apple cofounder and Cook’s predecessor as CEO.
“But Tim understands the world to a degree that very, very few CEOs I’ve met over the past 60 years could match,” Buffett added.
Berkshire owned 944 million shares in Apple at the last count, giving it a 5.6% stake worth close to $130 billion as of Monday's close. Buffett's company is Apple's second-biggest shareholder, and Apple is by far the largest holding in Berkshire's stock portfolio.
Buffett and Cook first connected nearly a decade ago, when Cook called up the investor to ask what he should do with Apple's roughly $100 billion cash pile. Buffett told him to spend some of it on buybacks if he viewed the stock as undervalued, and Cook followed his advice, he told CNBC in 2019.
Cook has also celebrated Berkshire's backing on several occasions.
"The fact that we've got the ultimate long-term investor in the stock is incredible," he told CNBC in 2018.
"I'm overjoyed, I'm thrilled because Warren is focused on the long term," he said in a Bloomberg interview in 2018. "We're in sync. It's the way we run the company, it's the way he invests. I could not be happier."
The Apple chief also admires Buffett's willingness to educate others, he told Fox Business in 2019.
"Warren to me, other than the obvious wisdom, integrity, humility, plain language ... I don't think there's a better teacher," he said.
Buffett, who received personal instruction from Cook on how to use an iPhone, has praised Apple and its CEO many times.
"It's an incredible business run by a fellow who is one of of the great managers of all time," he told Bloomberg in 2018. "He was underrated for a while, but now he's being seen for what he really is."