- Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger addressed Elon Musk at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting.
- The Tesla chief will tackle a complex problem that will result in big wins and losses, they said.
- “We don’t want that many failures,” Munger said, explaining why it’s less risky than Musk.
Elon Musk dreams big and tackles tough problems. I mean, sometimes he achieves big things, but sometimes he fails miserably, said Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger.
The CEOs of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter are “defying the impossible,” Berkshire Hathaway CEO Buffett said at the company’s annual meeting on Saturday.
“Warren and I are looking for an easy job,” said Munger, Buffett’s business partner and Berkshire vice chairman.
Both Buffett and Munger credit Musk for successfully turning Tesla into a major automaker in the highly competitive auto industry. With dreams of colonizing Mars, Mr. Musk pioneered reusable rocket technology in SpaceX, experiencing high-profile failures and spectacular explosions along the way.
Berkshire CEO doesn’t like to take risks like Musk, says Tesla CEO “wouldn’t like to be in my position” .
“It’s a dedication to solving the impossible, and sometimes he’ll do it,” Buffett added.
Musk has distanced himself from Buffett in recent years, saying he is a builder of businesses and products rather than an investor. He acknowledged Buffett’s expertise, but said the Berkshire chief executive’s job of researching companies and allocating capital was “extremely tedious.”
Still, the tech billionaire recently said Buffett would be an ideal U.S. Treasury secretary because Berkshire’s chief executive can get the job done in less than an hour a week.
Musk also blamed Buffett and Munger for missing the opportunity to invest in Tesla at a $200 million valuation in 2008.