Investment tycoon Warren Buffett said he is more comfortable with Berkshire Hathaway Inc deploying capital in Japan than Taiwan, reflecting the growing tensions between the United States and mainland China.

The carmaker reported that net profit fell to 4.13 billion yuan (US$596.28 million) in the first quarter, down from 7.3 billion yuan in the fourth quarter as potential buyers anticipated bigger price cuts.

The Warren Buffett-backed company cut the price of its Seagull model below the level that already attracted 10,000 pre-orders in 24 hours.

The billionaire investor swore off Japanese food for life after a disastrous sushi dinner in 1989. Even at 92, he’d much rather be eating McDonald’s, Hershey’s Kisses and Coke.

Elon Musk lost his No 1 spot to LVMH’s Bernard Arnault last year in a record-breaking wealth loss, but who else is on 2023’s list of world’s richest people?

The share sale on March 31 has reduced Berkshire’s holding to 10.9 per cent from 19.92 per cent in August, when it started paring its stake in the Shenzhen-based carmaker for the first time in 14 years.

From tech billionaires Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison, to investment guru Warren Buffett and luxury titan Bernard Arnault – who has the priciest timepiece?

‘Some players will be eliminated, while some will grab a bigger market share,’ says Wang Chuanfu, founder, chairman and president of Chinese carmaker BYD.

The Shenzhen-based carmaker’s profit rose 12-fold to 7.3 billion yuan (US$1.06 billion) in the three months to December, compared with 602 million yuan a year earlier.

The US$6 billion in government guarantees UBS is seeking would cover the cost of winding down parts of Credit Suisse and potential litigation charges, sources said.

New plant in Wenzhou, in east China’s Zhejiang province, will produce enough batteries to power 200,000 electric cars per year.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway trimmed its stake in BYD for the seventh time as the stock slipped more than 39 per cent from its peak in June 2022 and this year’s rally bypassed the EV maker.

Warren Buffett broke with his practice of staying out of local politics to urge his hometown of Omaha to abandon its planned tram project because he says it’s too expensive and not as flexible as buses.

The Shenzhen-based company, backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, confirms it is looking into building local factories in Europe, but did not reveal a timeline, locations or capacities.

Tesla is offering Chinese customers another discount of 6,000 yuan (US$859) to bolster sales of its Shanghai-made vehicles, six weeks after it cut prices by up to 9.4 per cent.

Billionaire investor donated Berkshire Hathaway stock to four foundations run by his family, but the recipients did not include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Premium electric-carmakers in China are bearing the brunt of a slowdown, with some players cutting prices to survive cutthroat competition.

Most of China’s top carmakers neither have plans in place to phase out conventional vehicles nor a detailed timetable for their net-zero targets, Greenpeace says.

Strong sales of the D9 MPV from the joint venture between BYD and Mercedes-Benz shows that a growing number of Chinese drivers are making the switch to battery-powered vehicles.

Nio plans to enter the US market in late 2025 and launch more affordable models to compete against the likes of Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y.

The expansion of its industrial estate in Shen-Shan Special Cooperation Zone will cost 20 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion) and aims to generate annual sales of 100 billion yuan when it becomes operational next summer.

BYD signed a land purchase deal on Thursday with Thai industrial-estates developer WHA Corp to build its first electric vehicle plant in Southeast Asia.

A college dropout who first tried his luck as a diamond trader before turning to coal, India’s Gautam Adani was little known outside his homeland until a few years ago.

Stock investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala with an estimated net worth of US$6 billion, died early on Sunday his family said. The cause of death was not immediately announced.

BYD, the Chinese carmaker that recently overtook Tesla’s as the world’s largest EV maker, has boosted its go-global ambitions by sending its first shipment of 1,000 Atto 3 SUVs to Australia.

Following the sell-off in BYD, investors are concerned that some green energy bets have become crowded, while others say that price gains are unsustainable.

The Microsoft co-founder says he plans to move down and eventually off the list of the world’s richest people, on which he currently holds fourth place.