{"id":94,"date":"2026-05-13T18:11:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanhomejournals.com\/?p=94"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:11:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:11:39","slug":"i-was-in-the-room-when-warren-buffett-gave-a-surprise-interview-at-berkshires-annual-conference-the-mood-swung-from-excited-to-gloomy-then-hopeful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanhomejournals.com\/?p=94","title":{"rendered":"I was in the room when Warren Buffett gave a surprise interview at Berkshire’s annual conference. The mood swung from excited to gloomy, then hopeful."},"content":{"rendered":"
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I was in the room when Warren Buffett sounded the alarm on “gambling” in markets, nuclear weapons, and deepfakes on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Read more I helped block a data center in my town and learned how much power locals have<\/a><\/p>\n

During Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting, the company’s chairman and former CEO joined CNBC’s Becky Quick backstage for a surprise interview.<\/p>\n

The pair’s conversation was broadcast live to a crowd of thousands seated in the CHI Health Center in Buffett’s hometown of Omaha.<\/p>\n

I had a bird’s-eye view of the event from the press box overlooking the stage, and could see the crowd’s excitement at the prospect of hearing the business icon speak.<\/p>\n

Kartik Rangarajan, 54, a tech worker from Dallas, told me it was a “very good, pleasant surprise” that Buffett sat for an interview, as he was eager to “hear from him directly.”<\/p>\n

Brett Gardner, the author of “Buffett’s Early Investments,” told me that he saw lots of people milling around outside the arena for large portions of the Q&A.<\/p>\n

But as soon as Buffett started speaking, he said, “everyone just crowded around the TV and it was like, ‘We’ve got to listen to Warren.'”<\/p>\n

Buffett, a renowned bargain hunter, has struggled to find deals on stocks and businesses in recent years. He told Quick that today’s market is “not an ideal environment” for deploying cash.<\/p>\n

The benchmark US stock index, the S&P 500, has surged by 27% over the past year to record highs of above 7,200 points. Berkshire shares have slumped by 8% over the same period.<\/p>\n

Berkshire sold a net $8 billion worth of stocks last quarter, boosting its cash pile to a record $380 billion at the end of March.<\/p>\n

Addressing the challenging market and Berkshire’s ballooning cash reserves, Buffett said the company has the right people and is set up to “pick our spots.”<\/p>\n

The business icon put his legendary patience into sharp relief when he said that out of the past 60 years, only “five of them have really been juicy.”<\/p>\n

Buffett, 95, is known to invest only within his “circle of competence.” He told Quick that he has not learned about any new industries in the past decade, and doesn’t plan to change that.<\/p>\n

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More from inside Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting<\/h2>\n
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I flew to Berkshire Hathaway’s first big bash without Warren Buffett as host. I found an event with an uncertain future.<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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What it’s like meeting Warren Buffett \u2014 and why his Berkshire bash is unique<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n

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Berkshire Hathaway’s first Q&A without Warren Buffett opened with a question from a deepfake Warren Buffett<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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Warren Buffett’s exit as CEO doesn’t mean Berkshire is going all in on AI, Greg Abel says<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

‘Gambling mood’<\/h2>\n

Buffett described the market as a “church with a casino attached,” referring to the divide between speculators and long-term investors focused on company fundamentals.<\/p>\n

“The casino’s gotten very attractive to people,” he said, nodding to the boom in short-term trading and more aggressive use of leverage in recent years.<\/p>\n

“If you’re buying one-day options, or selling them, that’s not investing, that’s not speculating, it’s gambling,” Buffett said.<\/p>\n

Read more What it\u2019s like meeting Warren Buffett \u2014 and why his Berkshire bash is unique<\/a><\/p>\n

“We’ve never had people in a more gambling mood than now.”<\/p>\n

Buffett couldn’t resist taking a shot at the “wonderful trading departments” that practically shut down during crises.<\/p>\n

“Just try them out when the market is collapsing,” he said, adding that if they do pick up the phone, they’ll use any information you give them to “go out and kill you some other way.”<\/p>\n

“It’s really like going to a slaughterhouse,” Buffett said. “You don’t feel like eating hot dogs for a while.”<\/p>\n

Rangarajan told me he perceived Buffett’s comments “not so much as a grim picture,” but as a message to shareholders that he was patiently waiting for opportunities to arise.<\/p>\n

From worry to hope<\/h2>\n

The mood in the arena turned dour as Buffett described the threat posed by countries with nuclear bombs and the risk that something could “fall out of the sky” at any moment.<\/p>\n

The investor said it was important to be aware of that danger, but added that it does “no good to worry about it.”<\/p>\n

Buffett restored the room’s good vibes when he joked about his lack of travel in recent years. When Quick asked if he had met the new managers of some of Berkshire’s key holdings, he sent ripples of laughter through the audience by quipping: “I haven’t met the old managers.”<\/p>\n

The former Berkshire CEO, who made way for Greg Abel at the start of this year, also sparked chuckles in the crowd when he discussed the perils of marriage.<\/p>\n

“But you can make mistakes with people, just look at the divorce rate,” he joked.<\/p>\n

Along with his late business partner, Charlie Munger, Buffett is known for saying that a person’s choice of spouse is one of the most important decisions they’ll make in their life.<\/p>\n

Buffett briefly commented on the rise of deepfakes and other forms of imitation, calling it a “scary” trend, especially at a time when several countries possess nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

He lifted the crowd’s spirits with his final comments. He heralded America’s remarkable longevity and lasting appeal as a place to live.<\/p>\n

Then he reiterated his faith in the “golden rule,” which Quick clarified was the biblical advice to “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”<\/p>\n

“I’ve never seen anybody unhappy that behaves that way,” Buffett said.<\/p>\n

Ranganaran, who told me he’s been a Berkshire shareholder for over 25 years, noted that Buffett has spoken more about “giving and helping others and being kind” in recent years.<\/p>\n

“All of it is a good message for us to take back,” he added.<\/p>\n

Quick ended the conversation to whoops and applause with the words: “Warren Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway.”<\/p>\n

Read more I flew to Berkshire Hathaway\u2019s first big bash without Warren Buffett as host. I found an event with an uncertain future.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warren Buffett called out unprecedented amounts of “gambling” in markets, and sounded the alarm on deepfakes and nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance"],"yoast_head":"\nI was in the room when Warren Buffett gave a surprise interview at Berkshire's annual conference. 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