By Steve Dinnen
Fancy a Dilly Bar? Dairy Queen has as many as you could ever desire, brought to you by Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. You can drive there in an auto insured by GEICO, another Berkshire Hathaway company. The car might be fueled at a Berkshire-owned Flying J truck stop. But “no shirt, no shoes, no service,” right? Try some Berkshire-owned Tony Lama boots, Russell athletic wear or, underneath it all, Fruit of the Loom. The kids will sport some Garanimals. All of this is, and more, comes by way of Berkshire Hathaway.
My friend Walter Yu came to the notion of using AI to buy stocks while he was at an investing seminar across the street from Berkshire Hathaway’s recent annual shareholders meeting in Omaha. Thousands gather every year to hear CEO Warren Buffett amiably expound on the ways of Wall Street and investing. Dozens of meetings pop up in the vicinity, where attendees can drop in after the main event to learn how they can become better investors.
No surprise: AI took center stage this year. But apparently, nobody asked Buffett whether he uses AI, and since he’s retiring, we may never know. But he became very famous and very, very wealthy by paying attention in class at Columbia University to Professor Benjamin Graham, author of “The Intelligent Investor.”
Here are a few other Berkshire businesses that demonstrate just how far the empire extends, especially here in Iowa: Duracell batteries, Mid-American Energy, Benjamin Moore paint, Pampered Chef, Vanity Fair lingerie, Nebraska Furniture Mart, Acme Brick. And in southern Iowa, some of those goods roll in on Berkshire BNSF freight trains.
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