Van Gogh or van Goo? Matters little to Silicon Valley billionaire Carl Berg

A quick chat with the American real estate mogul and venture capitalist Carl Berg, who collects rent from Apple CEO Tim Cook, loves asking stupid questions and owns a suspect van Gogh:

What was your best investment?

Sun Microsystems. Scott McNealy, the founder, was a manager at one of my venture investments and wanted me to be the first investor. In 1982, for $1 million, I got 25 per cent of Sun at 25 cents a share.

You also made a fortune on tech real estate. How?

For decades, if you did anything in a decent location, the question was, will you lease your building today or next week? A market like that just doesn't exist many places.

You've sold most of your portfolio. Why?

I built mostly one and two-storey structures. High-rises get very expensive very quickly. I saw things going that way.

What have you retained?

The Silicon Valley campuses of Apple and Microsoft. The combined square footage is about 1.1 million.

You own a possible van Gogh?

It's either a van Gogh or a van Goo. I bought it at auction in 1997 for $315,000. Half the art world said it was an absolute fraud; half said it's probably something. There's still a chance it's real.

So what's the safer play: Treasuries or a Picasso?

If it's a real Picasso, that could be very safe. The art market has gone up, consistently and dramatically.

More multiple choice: Gold, bonds or hedge funds?

Gold. Right now, I think we're very close to the bottom, so it's got a relatively small downside and an awful big upside.

What's been your worst investment?

The battery company Valence Technology. I've been in it 22 years, and we've never made a profit. It drives me crazy. My goal in life is to make that damn company profitable.

Do you miss owning San Jose's soccer team?

It was a lot of fun, but I lost an incredible amount of money. I'll never touch a sports team again. You've got to be insane.

Any other lessons from your playbook?

Common sense is more important than anything else. And I'm not afraid to ask a question that's a stupid question.