Warren Buffett and Sam Altman have a common investing rule: Here is where they find biggest opportunities

Legendary investor Warren Buffett and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seem to be two poles apart in terms of expertise, but both the billionaires have a common investing rule: they believe that the best investing opportunities are not the popular ones.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman surprisingly has zero equity stake in his own company. Yet, he has made a fortune through his investments in startups like nuclear-fusion firm Helion and others. Speaking at a recent podcast, Altman said that venture capitalists Peter Thiel and Paul Graham taught him that the best companies and investment opportunities are "almost never" the ones attracting the most attention.

"You can do okay just following the trend and being a little early, but to do spectacularly well, you kind of almost always have to do things that are not what everybody else is doing. You cannot be following the new wave," he said.


Notably, legendary investor and fellow billionaire Warren Buffett has also advocated similar investing principles. He advised against what in today's lingo would be called 'FOMO buying'. The veteran investor wrote in his 1989 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, "It is far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price." This is relevant in today's times when strong market volatility often makes investors panic and make more trades, instead of remaining patient and focussing on quality.

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Buffett's warnings against investors 'gambling'

Buffett has been raising the alarm over investors "gambling" in stock markets. "It is tough to find values when everybody is preferring gambling," the legendary investor said in a recent interview to CNBC. He added that there are times when opportunities are just thrown at an investor so fast, and then there are other times when the investor is lucky to find one thing in a couple of years. "And it should always be that the latter is what prevails," the 'Oracle of Omaha' said.

"If you are buying one-day options or selling them, that is not investing, it is not speculating, it is gambling. We have never had people in a more gambling mood than now. It doesn't mean investing is terrible. It does mean prices for an awful lot of things look very silly," he said in an earlier interview with CNBC.

Also read | Warren Buffett issues new warning, says tough to find value in market when everybody prefers gambling

This comes amid a global frenzy around artificial intelligence that is driving sharp upswings and downswings in the stock markets. South Korea's Kospi, which is being seen as the face of this seesaw movement, skyrocketed 122% since the beginning of the year to hit a lifetime high of 9,386 in June before tumbling around 34%.

(With inputs from agencies)
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