【C:C.M Ep.51】Charlie Munger on BYD Company. | Daily Journal 2019

In this episode, Charlie Munger was asked on his perspective on the current state of infrastructure in the U.S. and some areas of growth that he might see in the future for infrastructure.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
– What is Charlie Munger comments on BYD?
– A brief story about BYD founder Wang Chuanfu.
– An example of Confucianism.
(https://www.yapss.com/post/collection-charlie-munger-51-byd)

#CharlieMunger #DailyJournalCorporation

[Transcript]
(Source: https://youtu.be/X1Oi3esiry8)

AUDIENCE MEMBER 00:08
I’m an engineer at BYD, and I was interested to hear your perspective on the current state of infrastructure in the U.S. and some areas of growth that you might see in the future for infrastructure. Thank you.

CHARLIE MUNGER 00:19
Well I think infrastructure will be a big deal. Practically everybody…in China where BYD is so active, by the way the Daily Journal owns some BYD, but BYD is going to be huge electric vehicles.They are already huge. And they’re going to be much more huge.

And then they’re going to be huge in monorails which is also a business whose time has come. And they’re also huge in these lithium batteries, and the lithium batteries are being improved – materially improved. And the place is full of fanatics, and by the way they’re a big supplier to Apple and Huawei. And they’re a very satisfactory supplier to those things.

So I am terribly impressed with BYD and its been one of the real pleasures of my life to – Wang Chuanfu is the eighth son of a peasant. An older brother recognizing a genius had been born into the family, he just gave up everything in life to nurture that little brother genius. Now that’s Confucianism.

And by the way Confucianism will do a lot better for civilization than the Ford Foundation did. Confucianism with a strong family ethos like that is a really constructive thing. And Confucianism partly created BYD. That older brother of Wang Chuanfu was a hero. And of course what Wang Chuanfu has done is a miracle. And of course that was a venture capital type investment.

We bought marketable securities, not Berkshire, but Li Lu did. And it’s been a wonderful investment and it’s been a very admirable company. And I like being part of something that’s inventing better lithium batteries and better monorails and so on and so on.

So if you work for BYD, you’re a very fortunate person and you’re gonna have a wonderful life watching and participating. You could hardly have a better employer. At least if you like demanding achievement and 80 hour weeks.