warren buffett closed out berkshire hathaway inc’s position in taiwan semiconductor manufacturing co concluding an abrupt withdrawal from the chipmaker that the billionaire blamed on rising tensions in the region the conglomerate exited the stock in the first quarter according to a filing after berkshire slashed its holding by 86 late last year that move which sent tsmc shares tumbling and investors spiraling was motivated by concerns over geopolitical tensions between china and taiwan buffett told investors at its annual meeting earlier this month buffett has otherwise continued to heap praise on the company calling it a “fabulous enterprise” and one of the best managed and most important companies in the world “there’s nobody in the chip industry that’s in their league” he said at the meeting in omaha nebraska tsmc’s location was the problem he said at the time global policymakers and customers are increasingly wary of becoming too technologically reliant on taiwan which beijing has claimed is part of china tsmc is building more capacity in the us and japan amid pressure to produce its advanced chips abroad read more buffett reaffirms abel as heir blames bank leaders for failures buffett has also said he prefers deploying capital in japan instead of taiwan “i feel better about the capital that we’ve got deployed in japan than in taiwan” buffett said earlier this month “i wish it weren’t so but i think that’s the reality and i reevaluated that in the light of certain things that were going on” in april tsmc reaffirmed its target for capital spending in a sign apple inc’s main chipmaker intends to shore up its lead in advanced semiconductors ahead of a tech recovery it expects sales of 152 billion to 16 billion this quarter a shade below the 161 billion analysts projected on average the company like the rest of the industry is grappling with uncertainty about electronics demand this year and beyond amid persistent inflation and a looming recession