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Berkshire once had a nearly 40% stake in the Chinese EV giant, but had promised to refocus investments in the U.S.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway pared its stake in BYD to less than 5%, further unwinding its long-term bet on China’s largest electric-vehicle maker amid a broader refocus on U.S. investments.

The Omaha, Nebraska-based investment giant recently lowered its stake in BYD to 4.94% from 5.06%, selling 1.4 million H shares at an average of 246.96 Hong Kong dollars, or about $31.64 each, according to an exchange filing Monday. Dropping below the 5% threshold means that Berkshire will no longer be required to disclose its sales of BYD stock on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

BYD shares closed 3.1% lower in Hong Kong and 4.7% lower in Shenzhen on Tuesday. The company’s Hong Kong-listed shares have risen about 11% this year, while its China-listed shares are up about 28%.

Berkshire has been regularly trimming its stake in BYD since August 2022, shortly after shares hit a record high. At the time, Berkshire’s shareholding exceeded 20%. At its peak in 2008, Berkshire held a nearly 40% stake.

Berkshire didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Buffett said in May that his late business partner, Charlie Munger, had been the one to initially push to buy into BYD, but that going forward, Berkshire would focus its primary investments in the U.S.

Berkshire in early 2023 sold all its holdings in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chip maker.

Berkshire “made it clear that they will engage with more opportunities in U.S.” markets, Nomura analyst Joel Ying said. Intense competition in China’s EV market is likely another major reason for trimming the BYD stake, he said.

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Excess inventory of Jeep and RAM vehicles looms over an otherwise benign environment for Detroit’s automakers

Two of the Detroit Three had a good first half. The third risks spoiling the fun.

General Motors GM 2.61%increase; green up pointing triangle and Ford Motor F 1.00%increase; green up pointing triangle are expected to report surprisingly resilient results this week, including record quarterly revenues, according to FactSet’s analyst consensus. Investors can thank the strength of the American consumer, sales discipline among manufacturers and a slowdown in electric-vehicle sales.

Six months ago, GM and Ford were penciling price declines into their forecasts for the year as the American vehicle market started to normalize following supply shortages. But sales prices have turned out better than expected, enabling the manufacturers to lift their profit guidance for the year despite a stalling recovery in sales.

Detroit also is a beneficiary of the EV slowdown that has hit Tesla. The prospect of consumers gradually shifting to a new powertrain technology—that the industry incumbents haven’t yet worked out how to make profitably—has been a significant investor concern. It still is, but the pain appears to be delayed, with EV sales stuck at around 7% of the U.S. total in the first half, down slightly from the second half of last year.

GM and Ford shares are up 34% and 15% so far this year, respectively. Profit-forecast upgrades account for most of the gains, with generous buybacks mechanically increasing earnings per share more for GM. Rising earnings multiples explain the rest, though they remain below their historic averages. Last fall, GM’s stock was trading at the lowest multiple in its postbankruptcy history, so there was ground to catch up.

The biggest risk for the second half is that pricing discipline starts to slip—led by Stellantis, which this year has gone from being the star of the Detroit family to the black sheep.

After a knockout few years, the successor company to Fiat Chrysler has struggled to shift an aging, aggressively priced line up of Jeeps and RAM trucks. With inventories accumulating on lots, dealers have been pushing it to sweeten the deal with buyers. This month the company kicked off a $2,000 summer “bonus cash” program.

Cutting prices that were too high won’t necessarily start a price war, and Stellantis’s problems seem largely of its own making. “We were arrogant,” as Chief Executive Carlos Tavares admitted at an investor day last month.

Yet it wouldn’t take much more competition for buyers to make life tough for Stellantis’s peers. Car manufacturers’ results are very sensitive to small changes in vehicle prices given their high fixed costs. So far, the new-vehicle market has weathered high interest rates better than many expected, helped by demand pent up during the pandemic era, but this can’t last indefinitely.

Inventories have been gradually building back to pre-Covid levels: There were about 2.9 million vehicles on dealer lots as of July 8, shy of the 3.4 million level at the start of 2020 but up from less than a million at the 2021 lows, according to Cox Automotive data.

What higher incentives from Stellantis will certainly do is hit its own results. Analysts have cut their forecasts for the company’s earnings per share over the next 12 months by about 8% this year, including a roughly 3% decline this month.

CEO says the electric-vehicle maker would use the robots internally first before producing them for other companies

Elon Musk said Tesla TSLA 5.15%increase; green up pointing triangle will have humanoid robots in production to be used within the company next year.

He said Monday morning that Tesla would use the robot for internal use first and then aim to produce it for other companies in 2026. Tesla, an electric-vehicle maker, has been working on the robot for several years as part of its efforts to expand into robotics and artificial intelligence.

Musk, Tesla’s billionaire chief executive, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that he believed the humanoid robots would be “genuinely useful.” Tesla wants the robots to help produce its cars more efficiently, complete difficult chores and reduce labor shortages.

Musk showed off a prototype version in 2022 of a humanoid robot called Optimus that took a few steps, waved to a crowd and performed basic dance moves. He said it was the first time the robot had operated without a tether. He also demonstrated a sleeker but nonfunctioning model that he said was closer to production.

The humanoid robots, an offshoot of Tesla’s driverless-car technology, has excited some investors. Musk has long wanted to frame Tesla as an AI company in part by showing off its robots and car automation.

He has a record of predicting timelines that don’t always pan out. Musk said in an earnings call in April that he thought Optimus would be able to complete factory tasks by the end of this year and go on sale by next year.

Tesla shares rose 5% on Monday. The stock has risen roughly 75% since late April, a sharp rebound after a steep decline in the beginning of the year. Overall, it is roughly unchanged so far in 2024.

He said Monday that Tesla’s humanoid robots would first be in low production, which typically means something is made in small amounts. Musk said Tesla aimed to produce the robots in larger quantities for 2026.

He has said the company wanted the robots to have a price point below $20,000. The robots are expected to have conversational capabilities and include safeguards to prevent wrongdoing.

Companies in recent years have been ramping up work on humanoid robots that can do menial human tasks. Some companies have used the robots in warehouses to speed up logistics operations.