3 Warren Buffett-Backed Foreign Startups Lost $63B In Market Cap In 2022

Three listed foreign startups in which billionaire investor Warren Buffett has invested $1.53 billion lost nearly $63 billion in market value as bourses around the world plunged with looming recession amid the Russia-Ukraine war and increased risk of COVID-19 as China eased curbs. 

What Happened: One of India’s largest payments portals, Paytm, Brazilian neobank Nubank NU and Chinese automaker BYD Company‘s BYDDY market value tumbled in 2022, according to data from stock exchanges. 

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Paytm Shares Lose 61.8%: As of Dec. 27, Paytm shares were down nearly 62% year-till-date. According to the shareholding data, Buffett’s investment arm held a 2.41% stake in Paytm as of December 2021. Buffett's Berkshire had invested $300 million in September 2018 for a 2.6% stake in a funding round that valued the startup at $10 billion. 

Paytm’s market cap fell from $11.63 billion at the end of 2021 to $3.73 billion as of Dec. 27, 2022, data from stock exchanges showed. 

Nubank Shares Plummet 61%: Buffett lost another bet in Nubank, whose shares tumbled 61% year-till-date as of Dec. 27. The Oracle of Omaha’s Berkshire Hathaway invested $500 million before the company's 2021 initial public offering and then later raised its investment to a whopping $1 billion in the Brazilian neobank, it disclosed in a filing on Feb. 14 this year. 

Nubank’s market cap fell from $43.23 billion at the end of 2021 to $18.23 billion as of Dec. 27, 2022, stock exchanges’ data showed. 

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BYD Stock Tumbles 3.28%: Berkshire Hathaway trimmed its stake in Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD in 2022, resulting in the company's stock tumbling over 3%. At the end of 2021, Berkshire Hathaway owned 225 million shares or about 20.5% of BYD. It started paring its stake in the Shenzhen-based company in August this year to take its holding below 15%. The company had invested $232 million in the automaker in 2008.

BYD’s market cap fell from $122.49 billion at the end of 2021 to $92.85 billion as of Dec. 27, 2022, data from stock exchanges showed.

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