No. of Recommendations: 32
If one is interested in assessing the value and potential risks of Berkshire shares, it is almost necessary to have an opinion on the value and potential risks of Apple shares.
Apple is one of Berkshire's biggest businesses, accounting for around (say) 1/6 of the value of a share of Berkshire.
For those who care to that degree, I
very strongly advise that you track down and read the study that the FT has just done on Apple and China.
It's a two-part article, full page yesterday and full page today.
It contains tons of basic history and other information, a lot of insightful thoughts, and quotes of some interesting opinions.
The latter may or may not be right, but broaden one's thinking.
One of the latter which is thought provoking:
A second loss of control was the result of Covid...a "huge, huge part of Apple's secret sauce"
is how frequently its top talent from California would travel to China and spend months at its suppliers' plants.
Two former Apple manufacturing engineers say the company's Chinese engineers really stepped up and proved themselves.
"Apple provided a training ground for Chinese manufacturing engineering that was second to none", one person says.
Apple, in turn, raised their pay and has been able to retain most of the team despite frequent recruiting efforts from rivals.
However, two people familiar with Apple's operations say giving up control risks slowing innovation and leaking intellectual property.
"The Cupertino guys stood back and let the Chinese take the lead", says one. "The Chinese guys completely control the product now."I'm not exactly sure HOW one would track down the articles if you're not a subscriber.
Part 1 is "How Apple tied its fortunes to China"
Part 2 is "Can Apple disentangle itself from China?"
I think these links are probably behind their pay wall:
https://www.ft.com/content/d5a80891-b27d-4110-90c9...https://www.ft.com/content/74f7e284-c047-4cc4-9b7a...Jim
PS
In case anybody wonders why I say around 1/6, this post explains
http://www.datahelper.com/mi/search.phtml?nofool=y...J
