Berkshire Hathaway invested in the Chinese electric-vehicle company BYD in 2008.
The investment was made through MidAmerican Energy Holdings, a Berkshire subsidiary, in September 2008. Berkshire paid about $230 million for roughly 9.89% of BYD, then primarily known as a battery manufacturer with ambitions in automobiles. BYD was founded in Shenzhen in 1995 by Wang Chuanfu, and its battery expertise became central to its later electric-car growth.
Buffett later credited Berkshire vice-chairman Charlie Munger with identifying BYD's potential. The deal is often described as Buffett investing in an electric-car maker, but BYD's business extended beyond vehicles into rechargeable batteries, electronics, buses, and other technologies. That distinction explains why Tesla, XPeng, and NIO are tempting but incorrect choices: none received Berkshire's famous 2008 investment.