Warren Buffett, billionaire investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway has praised Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO Tim Cook’s diplomatic skills and deep knowledge of global supply chains. Warren Buffett compared Tim Cook with Steve Jobs — Cook’s predecessor as CEO and co-founder of Apple. 

In a recent Bloomberg interview, Buffett said that "Tim may not be able to design a product like Steve Jobs". However, he said that "Tim understands the world to a degree that very, very few CEOs I've met over the past 60 years could match."

Berkshire Hathaway owns $111 billion worth of Apple shares. The company’s Apple stake makes 20% of the entire company. Furthermore, Berkshire is currently Apple’s second-biggest shareholder. Apple is the largest holding in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire stock portfolio.

When Cook met Buffett almost a decade ago, he asked him for financial advice. Cook asked Buffett what he should do with Apple’s $100 billion cash pile. In return, Warren Buffett advised him to spend some on buybacks if he believed back then that the stock is undervalued. Consequently, Cook followed his advice, he said in a CNBC interview in 2019.

Cook Praised Warren Buffett in Different Interviews

"The fact that we've got the ultimate long-term investor in the stock is incredible. It's an incredible business run by a fellow who is one of the great managers of all time. He was underrated for a while, but now he's being seen for what he really is." Cook told CNBC in 2018. 

"I'm overjoyed — I’m thrilled because Warren is focused on the long term. We're in sync. It's the way we run the company — it's the way he invests. I could not be happier." he said in a Bloomberg interview in 2018.

Cook moved from IBM Corp to working with Apple in 1998. Since then, Cook worked several 18-hour days. One former Apple executive who worked with Apple and asked to not disclose his name said about Cook: “Tim was always pure work: grind, grind, grind, grind,” However, he said that he “always found him exceptionally boring.”

In conclusion, Apple is planning to rival Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) and plans to launch an electric car by 2024. However, Musk described Apple car battery design as strange and electrochemically impossible.