Q1 2023 filings: Berkshire Hathaway sold its TSMC shares after cutting its position by 86% in Q4 2022, while Tiger Global and Coatue added to their TSMC stakes
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. drew mixed bets from top investors in the first quarter, as Warren Buffett closed …
Context & Ripple Effects
Berkshire Hathaway's TSMC position was a fast round-trip: Buffett's firm disclosed a ~$4.1B stake of about 60.1M American depositary shares bought in Q3 2022 — a disclosure that sent the stock up nearly 8% that day — then slashed it by 86% within one quarter, per the February filing on the Q4 2022 cut. Today's news completes the exit: zero shares left in Q1 2023.
The exit lands just after TSMC reported its first revenue miss in two years — ~$20.6B in Q4 against ~$20.8B expected — with the company flagging years of margin dilution as overseas fabs ramp. Against that backdrop, growth-focused funds Tiger Global and Coatue moving the other way splits the smart-money read on the stock.
First-order effects
- Berkshire is fully out of TSMC after holding it roughly two quarters, while Tiger Global and Coatue have increased exposure to the same ADSs — direct ownership of the shares shifts from value investors to growth funds.
Second-order effects
- The divergence pressures other large holders to pick a side: Berkshire has since shown the same fast-trim behavior elsewhere, later cutting its Apple stake by half after a smaller Q1 reduction, so its filings now function as a sell signal other managers price in quickly.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, marquee value-investor endorsements become shorter-lived trading positions rather than long-term commitments — making quarterly 13F disclosures a recurring volatility source for chip stocks like TSMC, whose fundamentals are already swinging on revenue misses and overseas-fab margin dilution.
The trend: Large institutional money is rotating out of headline chip positions faster than ever, leaving TSMC's shareholder base increasingly held by growth funds willing to underwrite its fab-expansion margins.