'I sold too soon': Barron's valued Buffett's former silver holdings at $13 billion

Berkshire Hathaway, led by legendary investor Warren Buffett, made a large investment in silver in 1997-1998. Now these investments - at the current price of the precious metal of about $100 per ounce - could increase to about $13 billion, Barron's calculates. However, Buffett got rid of these investments 10 years after the purchase (Berkshire did not specify the profit from this investment). Silver, as Buffett then admitted, in his opinion, he sold "too soon".

In 1997-1998, Berkshire Hathaway made a large investment in silver when its price was about $5 an ounce. As of February 1998, Berkshire had accumulated 129.7 million ounces of silver in six months, which at the time represented about 25% of the world's annual production, Barron's notes. The company's transactions drew market and regulatory attention at the time, after which Berkshire said it would not build up a position in silver. Over the next decade, the Buffett-led company exited the investment entirely. Its financial results were not disclosed.

Since then, the price of silver has risen sharply, Barron's points out. The metal has tripled in value over the past year, including an increase of more than 40% since the start of 2026. If Berkshire had maintained its position in silver, it could be worth about $13 billion today, Barron's calculates.

"I bought very early. I sold very early. Except for that, everything I've done has been perfect. I was the silver king for a while," Buffett said at Berkshire's 2006 annual shareholder meeting (he was chairman of the company's board of directors at the time.) "We made some money on it," the investor also noted, referring to his silver investments. - But we're not very good at predicting when it comes to speculative activity," he added.

Buffett invested in silver back in the early 1960s, when its price was actually set by the U.S. government at about $1.29 an ounce, Barron's writes, noting that this price then corresponded to the value of the precious metal contained in pre-1965 U.S. coins.

In the 1960s, Buffett believed that the government was artificially restraining the price of the metal, including dumping silver from government reserves despite strong industrial demand. In the end, he was right: after the demonetization of silver in 1965, its price rose, the publication notes. In the 1990s, Barron's points out, Buffett saw in silver a similar opportunity to what today's investors see in it: demand outstripped supply. In 1997, there was a silver shortage of about 150 million ounces, the publication notes. The Silver Institute estimates that the silver supply deficit in 2025 will exceed 100 million ounces with production at about 1 billion ounces - even before investment demand is factored in.

On January 24, 2026, the value of silver exceeded $100 per ounce for the first time. "Silver is in the midst of a self-inflating fever," StoneX analyst Rona O'Connell commented to Reuters at the time. "From the abundance of geopolitical risks adding to gold's resilience, silver is also benefiting - thanks to its lower price," she explained. - Everyone apparently wants to get in on this, but it sends out worrying signals. When the cracks start to appear, they could easily turn into a chasm. Fasten your seat belts," O'Connell warned.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor