Warren Buffett says Steve Jobs once called him and asked how to invest Apple’s cash – but he ignored his advice and did nothing

Apple recently released its third-quarter earnings report, beating expectations and showing why it remains a top player in the technology industry. Although Steve Jobs passed away in 2011, his name will always be synonymous with Apple. During a 2012 interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Warren Buffett shared a memorable phone conversation he had with Jobs about Apple’s cash reserves a few years earlier.

Don’t miss:

“It was an interesting conversation because I hadn’t talked to him in a long time,” Buffett said. Jobs called for advice on what to do with Apple’s massive cash pile. “He said, ‘We have all this cash. What should we do with it?’ So we discussed options.”

Buffett told Becky Quick that companies typically have four options for using cash: stock buybacks, dividends, acquisitions, or holding on to cash. Jobs made it clear that Apple would not pursue large, cash-intensive acquisitions.

“I analyzed the logic of everything. He told me they wouldn’t have a chance to make big acquisitions that would require a lot of money,” Buffett recalled. When Buffett suggested a stock buyback if Apple thought its stock was undervalued, Jobs replied, “I think my stock is very undervalued.”

Popular: Warren Buffett once said, “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you’ll work until you die.” These high-yield mortgage bonds with interest rates of 7.5% – 9% make earning passive income easier than ever.

Still, Jobs decided to ignore Buffett’s advice. “He didn’t do anything, and of course he didn’t want to do anything. He just liked having the cash,” Buffett noted with a laugh. “That was very interesting to me, because I later learned that he said I had agreed with him not to do anything with the cash.”

Buffett has admitted that he regretted not buying Apple stock back then. He used to be hesitant about investing in technology, but he became a major shareholder in Apple through Berkshire Hathaway. His investment in Apple is now one of Berkshire’s largest, showing his confidence in the company’s future.

Trending: America’s Construction Sites Desperately Need Robots — Here’s How to Invest in a Home Printing Startup That Makes Them and Become Part of a $16 Trillion Industry.

He has repeatedly praised Apple and Tim Cook over the years. During a 2020 interview with Squawk Box, Buffett explained how valuable Apple is to Berkshire, saying, “I don’t think of Apple as a stock. I think of it as our third business.”

In a 2023 interview with CNBC, Warren Buffett expressed his admiration for Tim Cook’s leadership at Apple. He described Cook as “one of the classiest CEOs” and emphasized his deep understanding of the business. Buffett noted, “Tim Cook has run this company in an extraordinary way.”

Emphasizing the strong bond between the Apple brand and its loyal customers, Buffett illustrated this loyalty with an example: “If you’re an Apple user and someone offers you $10,000 on the condition that they take away your iPhone and you’ll never be able to buy another one, you’re not going to take that offer.”

See also: Here’s an AI startup that’s turning traders into influencers, with 12% monthly growth – invest in it for just 10 cents a share.

Under Cook’s leadership, Apple took a more balanced approach to managing its cash reserves. Unlike Jobs, who preferred to hold cash, Cook implemented a strategy that included stock buybacks, dividends, and increased investment in research and development.

In May, Reuters reported that Apple increased its cash dividend by 4% and also approved an additional $110 billion share repurchase program, making it the largest share repurchase in the company’s history.

Read more: