A $10,000 stake in Apple bought ten years ago would be worth roughly $122,400 today, with dividends reinvested. The stock remains Berkshire Hathaway's largest equity holding even after Warren Buffett trimmed the position in recent years.
Apple remains Berkshire Hathaway's largest equity position, still making up 20% of Berkshire's roughly $360 billion stock portfolio even after the firm sold a considerable amount of its shares in recent years. At its peak, the stake accounted for 40% of the value of Berkshire's stock portfolio.
Warren Buffett reportedly first recognized Apple's appeal in 2016, after watching a close friend grow distraught at the thought of having lost an iPhone.
A decade of returns
A retail investor who put $10,000 into Apple shares ten years ago, around when Buffett started buying, would now hold a stake worth roughly $122,400 with dividends reinvested.
Buffett has long favored companies built on strong brands, as seen in other Berkshire positions he initiated such as Coca-Cola, American Express, and Alphabet. Apple's brand strength has translated into pricing power across the iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch lineup, each of which built substantial market share.
According to Counterpoint Research, Apple controlled 54% of the U.S. smartphone market by OEM share of shipments in the second quarter, flat year over year even as the numbers swing on a quarter-to-quarter basis. Globally, Apple holds a 21% smartphone market share, slightly behind Samsung's 23%.
Buybacks and what comes next
Under former CEO Tim Cook, Apple repurchased roughly $755 billion worth of its stock between 2016 and the end of 2025, reducing share count and lifting earnings per share for remaining holders.
Whether Apple can repeat the past decade's growth over the next ten years is a separate question. Companies that already control large slices of their industries typically grow at lower percentage rates as they get bigger, and Apple is already the second-largest company in the world, with a market cap of $4.9 trillion. Recently installed CEO John Ternus, a hardware specialist, brings an echo of Steve Jobs back into the company's leadership.
Apple has also taken a different path on artificial intelligence than many of its Big Tech peers, avoiding the hundreds of billions of dollars other companies are pouring into AI data centers. Instead, it is likely to bring AI to consumers through its devices. CNBC reported that many developers building AI applications prefer to build on models such as Mac Mini and Mac Studio instead of the cloud, since it can be cheaper and the machines are easy to take on the go. Apple recently rolled out new versions of the Mac Mini and Mac Studio with more powerful chips designed for AI developers.
Sources: The Motley Fool, Yahoo Finance
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