Warren Buffett Backs Driverless Trucks. Now They’re Real.
The investment by a Berkshire Hathaway company in an autonomous vehicle startup moves unmanned truck cabs closer to the highway.
A Warren Buffett company is betting on taking the driver out of the cab.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. didn’t gain fame for investing in startups. The venerated investor has a predilection for buying time-tested businesses like an oil company, a railroad or an insurer that are bets on the steady and profitable growth of the US economy.
Buffett shied away from technology stocks for years before taking the plunge with Apple Inc., which was already woven just as deeply in the fabric of the economy as Occidental Petroleum Corp., BNSF Railway Co. or Geico. It came as no surprise that Buffett eschewed the SPAC and NFT crazes. His longtime business partner, Charlie Munger, in February railed against the “wretched excess” in both venture capital and cryptocurrencies.