Buffett's first interview after stepping down: There’s nothing much worth buying in the stock market right now, and Apple was sold too early.

Billion-dollar Buffett (Warren Buffett) formally stepped down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at the beginning of 2026 and, for the first time, granted an interview to CNBC. In this hour-long conversation, Buffett spoke candidly about the current market correction, saying, “I can’t find anything worth buying right now,” while also revealing the reason for trimming his Apple stock, admitting he sold too early.

The stock-market entry points haven’t shown up yet; Buffett is waiting with $350 billion in cash

Facing the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq both falling into a correction range, and the S&P 500 down more than 7.5% year to date, Buffett’s attitude is calm. He emphasized that in Berkshire Hathaway’s history it has suffered three major drawdowns of more than 50%, saying, “This kind of volatility doesn’t amount to anything.”

On whether recent market volatility has revealed any promising industries, he was even more direct:

Right now, I still can’t find anything in the stock market that’s worth buying. Berkshire will only actively deploy capital when the market truly experiences a big selloff.

Berkshire currently holds more than $350 billion in cash, mainly allocated to short-term Treasury bills. The company only just bought $17 billion worth of Treasury bills at its regular auction on Monday. Buffett also said that if the Federal Reserve’s inflation target were up to him, it should be set at 0 rather than the current 2%, showing his consistent commitment to long-term price stability.

He sold Apple too early, but it’s not time to add more yet

When discussing the Apple (Apple) trimming decision that has drawn intense attention from the outside world, Buffett admitted, “I sold too early,” but emphasized that he still has no plans to buy back in the current market environment:

If the stock price were cheaper, I would keep adding. It’s just that right now it doesn’t have much appeal.

Apple is still Berkshire’s largest single holding, with about 230 million shares (about $55 billion in market value), accounting for roughly 20% of its overall stock investment portfolio. Buffett explained that when he looked back, Apple’s position once made up close to half of its stock investment portfolio, and the risk of being overly concentrated made him uneasy—this is the main reason for the trim.

Even so, he still praised Apple CEO Tim Cook, calling him “an excellent manager who gets along well with people all over the world,” and singled out Apple as the best-quality asset among all of Berkshire’s businesses. The company’s pre-tax profit from its Apple stake has exceeded $100 billion.

(Last season was Buffett’s last time running Berkshire! He slashed Apple and Bank of America, betting on the energy and insurance stocks)

As for the successor, Abel, Buffett admitted “there isn’t much you can do even when you go into the office”

Greg Abel (Greg Abel), who officially took over as CEO of Berkshire at the end of 2025, also received Buffett’s strong approval. He joked that the things Abel can handle in a single day are more than what he could do in a full week at his peak. Abel currently oversees Berkshire’s roughly $300 billion stock investment portfolio and more than 200 companies under the group.

Buffett also revealed that he still reports to the office every day, but given his age of 95, he doesn’t handle very many matters.

He also said that at this year’s Berkshire annual shareholders’ meeting in May, he will not take the stage to answer shareholders’ questions. Instead, Abel and several senior executives will preside, while he will sit in the audience.

The Epstein file shakes up the donation plan; his relationship with Bill Gates changes

During the interview, Buffett also for the first time publicly responded to how the exposure of the Jeffrey Epstein file impacted his charitable donation plans. He said that since the files were made public, he has not met or spoken with Bill Gates, and regarding whether he will continue donating to the Gates Foundation, he currently holds a “wait and see” attitude; the next large donation is expected in June this year. Since 2006, Buffett has donated nearly $50 billion to the Gates Foundation in total.

He described, “Epstein was good at finding everyone’s weaknesses and exploiting them,” and said he was glad he had never had any dealings with him: “Thank God I never got close to that guy.”

He also specifically mentioned that even Alan “Ace” Greenberg—former CEO of the old Wall Street giant Bear Stearns—who is the kind of sharp-minded manager like that, had also been misled by Epstein into hiring him, highlighting just how deep this person’s tactics ran.

This article, Buffett’s first interview after stepping down: there’s nothing worth buying in the current stock market, and Apple sold too early, was first published on Chain News ABMedia.