The Berkshire Beat: December 5, 2025
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Last week, I quoted a line from the Wall Street Journal’s moving portrait of Charlie Munger in his final years that perfectly captured the man: “To the day he died, that mind was running,” said stepson Hal Borthwick. “He never stopped learning.”
Yet the line that hit me hardest came from Charlie himself. “At my age,” he once said, “you make new friends or you don’t have any friends [at all].”
Think about that. Here was a man who lived for nearly a century, co-created one of the great business empires in history, redefined modern investing, shared his wisdom widely, but steadfastly refused to retreat into the past.
That, to me, is the enduring lesson from Charlie later in life. You are only as alive as the new ideas you entertain and the new people you welcome into your life. Stop doing either and you begin to die long before your body does.
And Charlie Munger certainly practiced what he preached…
Back in 2005, Charlie defied his curmudgeonly caricature by striking up an unlikely friendship with his 17-year-old neighbor, Avi Mayer. The teenager struggled in school due to ADHD — with little chance at college — but Charlie nevertheless saw something special in him. He informally enrolled Mayer in what he called “Munger University” and took a keen interest in his new “student”. “I watched him in action and learned from him,” said Mayer, “and he handed me books once in a while.” Mayer went on to create Afton Properties — with Charlie on board as a proud investor. Afton is now worth approximately $3 billion.
Each week, Charlie hosted a meeting of minds — a rolling salon of business leaders and great thinkers trading ideas over breakfast — at the Los Angeles Country Club. These gatherings were intellectual oxygen for the nonagenarian, who enjoyed adding new voices to the table to keep everyone sharp and engaged. On one occasion, a senior Ford executive joined the group and Charlie amazed them all with a detailed recitation of the company’s profitability over the decades. “I don’t know why you guys bother making cars,” he concluded, since the vast majority of Ford’s money has come from trucks.
Gregory Zuckerman, author of the WSJ piece, shared another story on X that didn’t make it into the final article. “A few years ago,” he wrote, “the endowment of a large university asked Charlie to join their regular meeting. He did and, of course, lectured them a bit.” He couldn’t believe how much money was allocated to so many different managers — who each, predictably, charged the university a hefty fee. “They listened attentively and then asked: Do you have any good managers we should add?”
Despite the committee missing his point entirely, Charlie recommended “a guy in Australia” — presumably Charles Jennings of Stonehouse Corporation, another new friend who he had met over Zoom during the pandemic.
The latest news and notes out of Omaha…
Okay, one last thing from that Charlie Munger article. Warren Buffett’s indulgent eating habits tend to get all of the attention, but Charlie was hardly an ascetic himself. “He sipped water like it was poison,” joked his grandson’s wife, preferring the cool refreshment of a Diet Coke like any good Berkshire Hathaway shareholder. She also once tried to re-create a nostalgic treat from his Army days — Spam fried rice — but the taste did not live up to his memories. Some things, it turns out, are better left in the past. “He loved Costco hot dogs,” she added. “In the hospital, one of the last meals he had was an In-N-Out burger and a Diet Coke.”
Apple has much to celebrate this Christmas season. Market research firm IDC forecasts a strong rebound in iPhone sales for the crucial holiday quarter — with shipments expected to rise 6.1% over last year. If that number holds, Apple will ship more than 247 million iPhones in 2025 — a new annual record for the tech giant. And this all seems to be fueled by the world’s rapturous reception to the new iPhone 17.
“In China,” said IDC senior director Nabila Popal, “massive demand for iPhone 17 has significantly accelerated Apple’s performance. It ranked first in October and November per IDC’s China Monthly Sales data with more than 20% share, miles ahead of the competition. The success story is replicated across all regions, including the U.S. and Western Europe that had previously slowed down.”
Someone at Berkshire purchased 17.8 million shares of Alphabet last quarter — and that company recently received a vote of confidence from a most unlikely source. On the People by WTF podcast, Tesla CEO Elon Musk named Alphabet/Google first when asked about possible investment ideas. “Google is going to be pretty valuable in the future,” he told host Nikhil Kamath. “They have laid the groundwork for an immense amount of value creation from an AI standpoint.”
For some further reading on the artificial intelligence phenomenon,
took a closer look at four different investor perspectives on the subject.
PacifiCorp hopes to sell its 50% stake in the Boardman-to-Hemingway transmission line to a special-purpose subsidiary owned by Berkshire Hathaway Energy. It would then lease the line’s capacity back to PacifiCorp for at least twenty years. Basically, the utility would offload upfront costs from this project onto BHE — while still being able to use the power line for its customers. Bob Jenks of the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board told Oregon Live that “the deal may be a way for Berkshire Hathaway to inject much-needed capital into PacifiCorp without putting that money at risk if the utility’s wildfire liabilities ultimately drive it into bankruptcy”. PacifiCorp added that this will “secure the funding necessary to ensure the project’s completion”.
And, finally, a few odds and ends to finish off the week…
BNSF Railway petitioned the Surface Transportation Board to review Union Pacific’s compliance — or lack thereof — with conditions imposed during its 1996 acquisition of Southern Pacific. “In the thirty years since the merger,” BNSF argued in its filing, “UP has engaged in a pattern of obstructive conduct that has diminished those competitive options and has harmed customers.”
This week, Berkshire collected $17.5 million in quarterly dividends from Kroger and $5.6 million from Visa.
Heinz was named one of the “Brands That Matter in 2025” by Fast Company — with special attention paid to the Kitchen, its in-house creative agency, which is credited with driving double-digit sales growth in emerging markets.
Mark Tobak over at Hedge Fund Alpha names Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and Jack Bogle the three wise men of investment — and explores how their most famous teachings are downright biblical.
I wish I had Charlie's eating habits and didn't suffer the consequences!
Thank you so much for sharing my essay!