'Patience is the best investment': Warren Buffett warns of gambling-obsessed market

"It is hard to find a worthwhile investment when everyone prefers to gamble."

Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, again stressed the importance of value investing in remarks directed at the US stock market. His comments reflect concern that the AI boom, surging demand for leveraged products and a sharp rise in options trading are shifting the market away from long-term investing and toward short-term speculative bets.

Speaking in an interview aired by CNBC on Friday, Buffett said it is hard to find a worthwhile investment when everyone prefers to gamble, adding that opportunities are not always available and that catching one or two over the span of several years is enough.

"Sometimes opportunities pour in at an almost unbelievable rate, but other times you are lucky to get one or two in several years," he said, stressing that the latter should always be the more common experience.

He added that people are far too fond of gambling. "More money is being spent creating gamblers than cultivating investors," he said.

Buffett's remarks have drawn attention amid a shifting investment landscape in US markets.

US stocks have hit all-time highs this year despite geopolitical risks in the Middle East and rising global oil prices. Massive capital has flowed into AI semiconductor and data center stocks, while the market for zero-day-to-expiration (0DTE) options and leveraged ETFs has expanded rapidly.

Observers have repeatedly noted that speculative trading — betting on short-term price swings rather than a company's underlying value — is on the rise.

Buffett has repeatedly criticized these market trends this year.

At Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting in May, he described the current stock market as a "church with a casino attached" and called the surge in zero-day options trading "gambling."

His words align with Berkshire's own investment posture.

Berkshire Hathaway held $347.7 billion in cash and short-term government bonds as of the end of the first quarter — the largest such stockpile in the company's history.

Market observers interpret this not as an inability to find investments, but as a deliberate decision to hold back because Buffett views current asset prices as too high.

Buffett has repeatedly cited patience as the cornerstone of value investing.

"Good investment opportunities do not come often," he said, adding that "the most important thing is to wait for the chance to invest at the right price."

Even as the AI boom and aggressive trading by retail investors dominate the market, Buffett has maintained his longstanding principle of selecting investments based on a company's intrinsic value and long-term profitability.