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Minority Stock Positions Stock Portfolio

BYD Makes Strategic Moves to Go Into Level-4 High Autonomous Driving

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

Berkshire Hathaway-backed BYD has signed key strategic partnerships in order to become a leading provider of self-driving cars.

The company has announced that Horizon Robotics will provide its self-driving “Journey 5” computer chip for certain BYD models set to be launched next year. BYD models equipped with the Journey 5 chip will be available by mid-2023 at the earliest, and BYD is the first car company to announce that it will use the Journey 5 chip in its vehicles.

Horizon Robotics mission statement is “To harness the full potential of AI, we constantly push the boundaries of innovation in AI processors, AI algorithms, AI compute systems and AI toolchains.”

First unveiled in August 2021, Horizon Robotics’ third-generation automotive-grade AI processor Journey 5 is designed for Level-4 high autonomous driving. The company also launched a real-time operating system TogetherOS, which will be fully open to partners along the automotive industry chain.

Kai Yu, founder and chief executive officer of Horizon Robotics, said: “We are proud to become the industry’s first provider of AI processors that enable Level-2 to Level-4 autonomous driving. Horizon is committed to exploring the best human-car interaction experience in both autonomous driving and in-cabin smart system, which we believe is the future of intelligent vehicles. But we cannot do it alone. We open our operating system and toolchains to customers and partners so that they can design solutions catering to their needs and automatically upgrade their software based on our Journey processors.”

In December 2021, BYD made a strategic investment in RoboSense, a world’s leading smart LiDAR system technology company and signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement.

RoboSense is a pioneer in the core technologies of LiDAR hardware, smart sensor software and chips. As the partnership deepens, RoboSense will keep pace with BYD, continuously upgrade the technological capacity in intelligent perception, and form a deeply integrated technology matrix to broaden the vertical coverage across the industry chain and jointly promote the innovation and transformation of the smart new energy vehicle industry.

RoboSense and Horizon Robotics

Also in December 2021, RoboSense formed a strategic partnership with Horizon Robotics to mobilize their respective technological capacity and mass production experience to roll out in-depth cooperation focusing on advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous driving, robotics, new intelligent transportation infrastructure and other applications.

Leveraging its leading smart LiDAR software and hardware technologies, RoboSense will join hands with Horizon Robotics to promote the large-scale commercialization of all segments of intelligent connected vehicle.

According to the partnership agreement, based on RoboSense’s second generation smart solid-state LiDAR RS-LiDAR-M1 and Horizon Robotics’ Journey 3 and Journey 5 automotive smart chips, the two companies will collaborate on the development and adaptation of integrated perception solutions for high-level autonomous driving pre-installed mass production. In the future, the partners will mobilize their respective advantageous industry resources to jointly promote the all-round standardized implementation of the domestic intelligent connected transportation industry.

BYD recently announced that it would no longer produce gas-only cars, and its March new energy vehicle sales in China hit a record 104,878 vehicles, as compared to only 24,218 in March 2021.

BYD and Berkshire Hathaway

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bet on BYD’s potential, purchasing 225 million shares for $232 million. It’s an investment that has paid off handsomely. Berkshire’s original investment of $232 million had grown in value to $7.69 billion as of December 31, 2021.

© 2022 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway and BYD, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell a stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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Lessons From Warren Buffett

Lessons From Warren Buffett: Read Everything in Sight

If there is one piece of wisdom that Warren Buffett has shared that he believes is key to becoming a good investor it is “to read everything in sight.” It is how he got started, and it has continued throughout his life.

“I just read a lot. I probably took every book in the Omaha Public Library, every book they had on investing, or the stock market, basically,” Warren Buffett said at the 2005 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting. “. . . . I took all the books out. I read them. And finally, when I was 11, I bought three shares of stock and I didn’t know, I was fascinated by the subject. My dad got elected to Congress, so now the library became even bigger, and I took all the books I could out of there on markets. And I used a chart and do all that sort of thing. And then, finally, I read [Benjamin] Graham’s book when I was at the University of Nebraska, The Intelligent Investor, when I was 19, and that just changed my whole framework. But the advice I would give is to read everything in sight.”

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© 2022 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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NetJets

Jet Deliveries Begin for NetJets’ China Partnership

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Berkshire Hathaway’s NetJets has begun delivering Gulfstream G450s for its China market partnership with Shenzhen, China-based Amber Aviation. The partnership will see NetJets provide up to 20 aircraft to Amber Aviation.

The partnership is part of a new Jet Card, membership club and shared lease programs. In addition to planes, NetJets is also providing service support, sales assistance, product design and legal support.

“This partnership with Amber Aviation offers NetJets a unique opportunity to provide long-term service in the Asian Market to our owners,” said NetJets Chairman and CEO Adam Johnson. “The team at Amber Aviation shares NetJets’ commitment to safety and service, and is a truly collaborative partner that we look forward to working with alongside our respected co-investors.”

Amber Aviation chairman Chang Qiusheng first joined the aviation sector in 1981 and has served in various management positions in the field for over 30 years. Prior to founding Amber Aviation, Mr. Chang established Business Aviation Asia Limited where he served as Chairman and General Manager. He guided the firm to become the largest business jet management company within a period of ten years. Mr. Chang has also served in senior management positions in Beijing Air China Aviation Service Corp., Air China VVIP Office and Air China Business Jet.

This is not the first go around for NetJets in China. NetJets previously had a China joint venture formed in 2012 with Hony Jinsi Investment Management (Beijing) Ltd and Fung Investments, but the partnership was scrapped in 2017.

© 2022 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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NetJets

NetJets’ European Fleet Reaches 100 Jets

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Berkshire Hathaway’s NetJets has added its 100th jet, a Cessna Citation Latitude, to its Europe-based fleet, as part of its $2.5 billion fleet investment.

“NetJets is proud of its unwavering commitment to safety, service, and unmatched global access,” Christian Luwisch, executive director of NetJets Europe, said. “This landmark achievement is a testament to all at NetJets continuing to deliver exceptional service and access to our owners.”

Netjets has been experiencing record demand, and 55 aircraft to its global fleet of 800 aircraft in 2021. Its plans for 2022 include the purchase of more than 75 new aircraft, and the company has slowed the decommissioning of aircraft.

Looking towards a lower carbon future, NetJets signed a Memorandum of Understanding with German aerospace company Lilium for the prospective¬ sale of up to 150 Lilium electric vertical take-off jets, plus related after-market services.

The proprietary technology at the core of the Lilium Jet is Ducted Electric Vectored Thrust (DEVT), which has zero operating emissions.

© 2022 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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Lessons From Warren Buffett

Lessons From Warren Buffett: If You Can’t Fly a Cessna, What Makes You Think You Can Fly a Jumbo Jet?

One thing Warren Buffett thinks CEOs would benefit from is if they better understood investing. And one thing that confounds him is when managers aren’t confident enough to manage their own personal portfolio, yet they still think they should be the ones to make the decisions on enormous acquisitions and mergers. It is like being too scared to fly a Cessna but still thinking you can pilot a 747 jumbo jet.

“I will have friends who are CEOs of companies and they’ll have somebody else handle their money. If you say to them, you know, should you buy Coca-Cola or Gillette or something like that, they’ll say that’s much too tough. I don’t understand that sort of thing. What do I know about investing?” Warren Buffett said at the 2005 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting. “And then some investment banker walks in the next day with the idea they buy a $3 billion company, which is just buying a lot of shares of stock in one company, and they’ll run through some little two-hour presentation and turn it over to a strategic planning group and think that they are then the ones that should make that decision as to whether to buy multibillion-dollar businesses when they really don’t feel they’re qualified to make $10,000 decisions with their own money.”

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© 2022 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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Mouser Electronics

Berkshire’s Mouser Electronics Named Global High Service Distributor of the Year by TE Connectivity for Eighth Year

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Berkshire Hathaway’s Mouser Electronics has received the Global High Service Distributor of the Year Award for the eighth time from TE Connectivity (TE), a world leader in connectivity and sensors. The prestigious distribution award recognizes Mouser’s 2021 performance based on sales growth, market share growth, customer growth and business plan performance.

“We are extraordinarily proud to receive this award for the eighth time. All of us at Mouser appreciate TE for recognizing the excellent work of our teams across the globe,” said Jeff Newell, Senior Vice President of Products at Mouser Electronics. “TE is an industry leader and valued manufacturer partner, and we are excited to reach our mutual business goals and build on this success together.”

“It is my pleasure to honor the Mouser team with this Distributor of the Year Award for the eighth time,” said Tammy Stine, Global Account Manager at TE Connectivity. “Mouser’s consistent track record of high achievement with TE demonstrates the amazing strength of our business partnership, especially for 2021 in the face of continued challenges. We couldn’t be prouder of the sales and customer growth that Mouser achieved for us.”

Mouser previously won the TE Global High Service Distributor of the Year Award for 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2020 performance. Additionally, for 2018, Mouser received TE’s Customer Expansion Awards for APAC, Japan and EMEA, along with Americas Distributor of the Year Awards for the Application Tooling Business Unit and Data and TE’s Devices Business Unit.

© 2022 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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Minority Stock Positions Stock Portfolio

BYD Stops Building Gas-Only Cars

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Berkshire Hathaway-backed BYD has stopped the production of automobiles powered only by gasoline, with the final model rolling off the assembly line in March.

The Shenzhen, China-based automaker will turn its focus to manufacturing innovative battery- electric vehicles, including high-tech battery electric cars and trucks and plug-in hybrids, company officials said.

While EV battery fires have been a concern with some EVs, including the Chevy Bolt brand, which had all its vehicles recalled to replace defective lithium-ion battery modules in Chevrolet Bolt EVs and EUVs, BYD uses its patented ultra-safe Blade Batteries in all its pure electric models.

According to the company, the Blade Battery has successfully passed the battery industry’s so-called “Everest” test – the nail penetration test, which proves it will never spontaneously ignite.

BYD will continue to produce and supply the components for internal combustion (ICE) vehicles so as to continually provide comprehensive service and after-sales support to existing customers.

BYD and Berkshire Hathaway

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bet on BYD’s potential, purchasing 225 million shares for $232 million. It’s an investment that has paid off handsomely. Berkshire’s original investment of $232 million had grown in value to $7.69 billion as of December 31, 2021.

© 2022 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway and BYD, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell a stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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Lessons From Warren Buffett

Lessons From Warren Buffett: Do Anything That Makes Sense and Don’t Limit Yourself

While many mutual funds and ETFs limit themselves to a particular area, this is not Warren Buffett’s approach. He wants the maximum flexibility to take advantage of opportunities, and he also doesn’t want to be forced to do any particular thing.

“I would say that we think the most logical fund is the one we have at Berkshire where, essentially, we can do anything that makes sense and are not compelled to do anything that we don’t think makes sense,” Warren Buffett said at the 2007 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting. “So any entity that is devoted to a limited segment of the financial market we would regard as being at a disadvantage to one that has total authority if you have the right person in charge… So we would not want to devote our funds to something that was only going to buy bonds, something that was only going to buy futures, or anything of the sort.”

Hear Buffett’s full explanation

See the complete Lessons From Warren Buffett series

© 2022 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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BNSF

BNSF Acquires Massive Arizona Parcel for Intermodal Center

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BNSF Railway Company has acquired 3,508 acres of land in Surprise, Arizona in order to build a major intermodal freight and logistics center. The land was bought from the Arizona State Land Department at auction on March 30, 2022 for $49.1 million. BNSF was the sole bidder. BNSF already owns an adjacent 500 acre parcel that is currently zoned as rural residential.

In 2007, BNSF proposed a 130-acre rail yard, 200-acre automotive shipping facility with up to 16 million square feet of warehouse space in Surprise, but the project was put on hold during the Great Recession. At the time, BNSF projected the project would create 6,000 jobs.

Surprise, Arizona is on a BNSF rail line with the Ennis Spur running to the BNSF certified Southwest Railplex industrial park. The two-square mile park is shovel-ready with all major utilities to site.

© 2022 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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Minority Stock Positions Stock Portfolio

BYD Selects NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion for Next-Generation Software-Defined EVs

(BRK.A), (BRK.B)

Berkshire Hathaway-backed BYD, one of the world’s best-selling EV brands, is collaborating with NVIDIA on intelligent driving technology.

BYD will use the NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion computing architecture in its new energy vehicles (NEVs) for automated driving and parking, starting in the first half of 2023.

BYD is a leader in the electric vehicle industry, and NVIDIA is a leader in artificial intelligence (AI). The cooperation is an important joint effort in the production and deployment of environmentally sustainable NEVs that become increasingly intelligent with over-the-air software updates.

BYD’s NEVs will feature the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin SoC as the centralized compute and AI engine for automated driving and intelligent cockpit features.

NVIDIA DRIVE Orin, the world’s highest performance automotive-grade SoC, is the AI brain of next-generation vehicles. Delivering 254 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) of compute performance, DRIVE Orin features high-speed peripheral interfaces and high memory bandwidth (205GB/sec) to seamlessly handle data from multiple sensor configurations for safe and secure intelligent driving capabilities. NVIDIA DRIVE Orin achieves systematic safety standards such as ISO 26262 ASIL-D to ensure safe, highly advanced intelligent driving.

NVIDIA DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip

“Software-defined autonomy and electrification are some of the driving forces behind the automotive industry’s transformation. Through the power of AI and the NVIDIA DRIVE platform, BYD will deliver software-defined EV fleets that are not only safe and reliable but also improve over time,” said Rishi Dhall, Vice President of Automotive, NVIDIA.

With industry-leading technologies such as the Blade Battery, DM-i super hybrid technology, and the e-platform, BYD sold nearly 600,000 electric passenger vehicles in 2021 and had achieved a cumulative production and sales volume of electric passenger vehicles over 1.5 million units. In China, BYD has dominated the top sales of electric passenger vehicles for nine times. Leveraging its strengths in technology, quality, and performance over the last 27 years, BYD continues connecting with customers, fans, and partners, through new technology, wisdom, and value, to drive the industry forward together.

BYD and Berkshire Hathaway

In 2008, Berkshire Hathaway bet on BYD’s potential, purchasing 225 million shares for $232 million. It’s an investment that has paid off handsomely. Berkshire’s original investment of $232 million had grown in value to $7.69 billion as of December 31, 2021.

© 2022 David Mazor

Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway and BYD, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell a stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.