Warren Buffett adds around $13bn to fortune, net worth soars to $155bn

April 07, 2025 (MLN): Legendary investor Warren Buffett has done it again, adding $12.7 billion to his net worth this year and pushing it to $155bn.

While investors have collectively lost $5 trillion in the US stock markets over the past two days following Donald Trump’s announcement of new tariffs on 184 countries, Buffett has stayed firmly in the green.

Unlike many, the Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO has managed to keep his investments profitable during this market turmoil.

It’s hardly a shock—Buffett has long been known for his unwavering focus on preserving capital, according to the Economic Times.

What's more interesting is that he has done it at a time when stock markets are volatile due to President Donald Trump's trade war fuelled by his tariff impositions that have instilled recession fears across the world.

In comparison, Elon Musk has lost $130bn in wealth year-to-date, bringing his net worth down to $302bn.

Jeff Bezos, on the other hand, lost $45.2bn, his net worth plummeting to $193bn.

On Thursday itself, a day after Trump's announcement, 500 richest people in the Bloomberg Billionaire's Index lost a combined wealth of $208bn, marking its fourth-worst day in its 13-year history.

The value-oriented investor has long complained about market valuations being too high and has refrained from using his cash on major acquisitions. This time, Warren Buffett had predicted an impending market downturn.

In 2024, his company sold $134bn in equities and was sitting on a record $334bn cash pile at the end of the year. At that time, the bull markets were raging.

According to a report by Fortune, Berkshire Hathaway has invested most of its cash in short-term Treasury bills, which have not only provided immunity from bleeding markets now but have also provided a profit to investors at the company.

Buffett in his most recent letter in February, explained the rationale behind his decision.

“We were aided by a predictable large gain in investment income as Treasury Bill yields improved and we substantially increased our holdings of these highly-liquid short-term securities,” he told investors in the letter.

The profits that Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett made also came from the stocks that he sold ahead of the market crash.

Berkshire cut its stake in Apple by two-thirds last year. While Apple still remains its largest stock holding, most of the company's equities were sold.

These stock sales came over the first three quarters of the previous year, when Apple was still on the rise.

While Apple shares peaked in December, the iPhone maker's stock price has crashed 28% since then.

The company is predicted to lose more as US tariffs hit China hard, with tech companies like Apple, who have manufacturing units there,e set to bear the brunt.

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