Himalaya Capital, whose founder has ties with Charlie Munger, significantly increased its stake in Google parent Alphabet in the second quarter. The Seattle-based asset manager, founded by Li Lu in 1997, emulates value investment principles of Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett and Munger. Besides being a longtime admirer of Berkshire Hathaway’s legendary founders, Lu has been longtime friends with Munger, introducing him to Chinese stocks like Alibaba and BYD. Munger also previously revealed that Lu has been the only person who has managed his personal assets. Munger has compared Lu to Buffett because of his knack for value investing in a market that’s not as crowded and competitive. “He’s partly a Chinese Warren Buffett. That really helps,” Munger said at a prior Daily Journal shareholder meeting. “Partly he’s fishing in China. Not in this over-searched, over-populated, highly competitive American market.” Munger had been a chairman at Los Angeles-based Daily Journal since 1977 before he stepped down earlier this year. While Himalaya Capital focuses on publicly traded companies in Asia, especially China, a regulatory filing revealed that its concentrated portfolio was mostly made up of U.S. technology companies. The firm had recently exited its bets on Alibaba, Pinduoduo and BYD. During the second quarter, Himalaya more than doubled its stake in Alphabet, making the Google parent its third largest holding behind Micron Technology and Bank of America . Meanwhile, it completely dumped its holding in Meta Platforms in the latest quarter. Himalaya also owned a sizable stake in Berkshire Hathaway , worth about $245 million at the end of June. The manager first bought Buffett’s conglomerate in the third quarter of last year. Apple , Buffett’s No.1 stock, was also prominent in Himalaya’s portfolio, with a value above $100 million at the end of the second quarter.
