The bigwig who sold Micron: held for six years, cleared out in 2023, and the stock price rose 15 times afterward.
Here is the English translation: ---
Spent 6.5 million yuan to buy a lunch with Buffett, yet this Indian “Buffett” missed out on 2 billion USD profits on Micron.
“Buffett's disciple,” world-renowned value investor Mohnish Pabrai, established a position in Micron in 2017 and exited completely in September 2023, only making about 100% profit; two years after selling, Micron’s stock price jumped over 15 times, with an estimated missed profit of about 2 billion USD. He also sold SK Hynix too early.
On June 22, in a Korean interview program called "지식인사이드 (Knowledge Insider)", he reviewed his most painful trading mistakes: “I deeply regret it. I violated my own principles, selling companies that should have been held forever.”
The Pain of Selling Out: Held for Six Years, Sold Right Before Take-off
Pabrai established a Micron position in 2017, with his holding once as high as 77%. In the interview, when the host asked about the Korean stock market, Pabrai expressed his regrets.
Although he didn’t directly mention specific trades on Micron, Pabrai said he had done extensive research—going personally to Seoul to meet the SK Hynix management, visiting Samsung executives, and deeply discussing with Micron’s India-born CEO. His core logic: The global memory market would ultimately end with three companies—Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. The oligopoly structure is solid, competition tends to be rational, and profits are expected.
He even sought advice from Buffett and Munger on this subject. Pabrai recalls: “Munger and Buffett told me, ‘We’ve researched global cola bottlers—when only two remain in 95% of regions, both can make good money. Only in 3%-5% of regions, where the firms are natural enemies, will nobody make money.’”
In 2023, Samsung announced production expansion. Pabrai judged this destroyed the supply side logic, and immediately sold out.
But at that time, ChatGPT had already emerged, and the demand for HBM (high bandwidth memory) was about to explode.
Two years after selling, Micron stock rose over 15 times.
“I shouldn’t have sold them”
Micron is not his only regret.
He also sold SK Hynix too early. In the interview, he said outright: “I visited Samsung many times, and I also held investments in SK Hynix. It's deeply regretful—I violated my own rules, selling these companies when they should have been held forever.”
His judgment on Korean semiconductors remains clear: “The memory business of SK Hynix and Samsung is a highly protected industry.” He explained that the memory industry used to have more than 20 companies fiercely battling and undercutting each other, resulting in losses until only three remained. “New entrants are basically impossible—patent barriers, engineer reserves, and process complexity; it takes 10, 15, or even 20 years to enter.”
For current investors holding Korean semiconductor stocks, his advice was direct: “If you already hold, don’t sell. The party is just beginning.”
In a way, this was also said to himself.
What Did 6.5 Million Buy?
In 2007, Pabrai bid $650,000 (about 6.5 million Yuan) to win a lunch with Buffett—about a third of his mental budget of $2 million.
He said he had just one purpose: “My entire agenda was to thank Mr. Buffett in person.”
But the lunch exceeded all expectations. He told Buffett his wife actually admired Munger more. Buffett immediately accepted the “challenge,” saying he’d arrange a lunch with Munger so they could see he was actually the better lunch companion. Two days later, Pabrai really received an arrangement email from Buffett’s assistant.
“That lunch—I would rate Buffett a 15 out of 10. One reason is, he gets things done.”
A relationship with Munger was thus established, and since then Pabrai visited regularly every three or four months with his family.
Three Bottom Lines, 213 Checklist Items
Pabrai has a checklist method drawn from the aviation industry—after an air crash, regulators analyze the cause and revise rules. He likens investment losses to crashes, turning each loss into a new checklist item.
His current checklist has 213 items. For ordinary investors, he refines three essentials:
First, no leverage. “The #1 reason investors lose money is leverage—either companies are overindebted or investors borrow to buy stocks.” He cites the IKEA founder: Ran the business for 70 years, never borrowed a single euro—“Because we owe no one, nobody can stop us.”
Second, persistence of moat. Not just whether there’s a competitive advantage, but how long it can last. He cites Amore Pacific: The brand is famous, but has many competitors and consumers permanently seeking better products; the moat is not solid.
Third, the character of management. “Do they love money or do they love the business? It’s okay to love money, but not to be greedy.”
For the vast majority, his conclusion is simpler—‘Over 99% of investors should just buy the index.’
“If wealth is lost, nothing is lost”
At the end of the interview, Pabrai talked about his ultimate goal: to give away all his money before passing away on June 11, 2054 (an AI-predicted death date). He says, “I don’t really care about money; wealth beyond a certain point has no practical meaning for you. I’m playing a game.”
“If wealth is lost, nothing is lost; if health is lost, something is lost; if character is lost, everything is lost. So, don’t worry much about wealth, care a bit about health, and pour all your energy into character.”
Full interview transcript below:
Lunch with Warren Buffett worth 700 million Korean Won, a precious gift
‘Knowledge Insider (지식인사이드)’ blog, June 22, 2026
Today, we invited world-known value investor Mohnish Pabrai, who perfectly inherited Warren Buffett’s investment philosophy. He’ll share his unique insights, including the ‘treasure’ gained from a 700 million Korean Won lunch with Buffett, and various situations in the Korean stock market.
Pabrai 00:00 As an investor, whether it’s Samsung or SK Hynix, I always ask: What will this company’s cash flows be in 20 years? If an investor can’t answer this question, he shouldn’t buy the stock.
Pabrai 00:18 I basically follow Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger's investment methods. There are three key checklist items, which largely mean…
Pabrai 00:43 Hello, glad to be here, thank you very much. I am an asset manager, managing about 1.4 billion dollars.
Host 00:51 It's an honor.
Pabrai 01:05 From my perspective, that lunch was one of the best bargains I’ve ever experienced, truly a “steal”. Looking back afterwards, everything further convinced me of this. Imagine, if we lived in Newton or Einstein’s era, had lunch opportunities with them—would we go? How much would we pay? I think Buffett absolutely stands with them.
Pabrai 01:37 He’s the greatest investor ever, the best living investor, and he’s willing to accept “bribes” from outsiders via lunch. My career is built on his thought system, learning from him. By 2007, I’d already directly earned over $70 million using Buffett’s principles. So I felt it was time to pay my ‘tuition’ to the teacher.
I asked myself: What tuition is suitable for a teacher who let you earn $70 million? I thought 3% was reasonable, maybe low. 3% is about $2 million. The final bid was surprisingly low—$650,000, under one-third my budget.
Pabrai 02:32 My only purpose in going to lunch was to thank Mr. Buffett in person. I expected nothing more. However, Buffett had different expectations for these lunches.
Host 02:49 What did he bring to that lunch?
Pabrai 02:50 His expectation is: Every winner should feel they got a great deal. Even if someone paid $26 million, he’d try to ensure they thought it was worth it.
Pabrai 03:06 When Buffett comes to lunch, his goal is to create adequate value for us. Even before lunch started, his assistant collected CVs and bios for everyone present. He researched everybody’s background ahead of time.
When lunch began, he told us there was no time limit. Lunch started at about 1 pm. He said, “I have no commitments this afternoon; I’ll stay until you no longer wish to talk—just let me know.”
Pabrai 03:42 I also attended another charity lunch; the guest was Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the time. That lunch was entirely different. Schmidt’s lunch was at Google’s cafeteria; he checked his watch every 15 minutes. The lunch was set for one hour; exactly at that time, he stood up and left.
If I rate these two lunches, I give Schmidt's a 2 (out of 10), maybe just 1. I barely remember anything he said—no quote “changed my life.”
Host 04:19 What about the lunch with Buffett?
Pabrai 04:21 Buffett? 15 points.
Host 04:23 Fifteen?
Pabrai 04:25 Yes, 15 out of 10. More reasons than one.
My wife was also there; I told Buffett she’s a big fan, but her true ‘idol’ is Charlie Munger, not him. Buffett immediately grew competitive, saying: “My partner Charlie Munger is boring; eating lunch with him is meaningless. I’m the interesting one, not Charlie. Just because you don’t know him, you think he’s fun—I’ll arrange a lunch for you to meet Charlie.”
Host 05:03 Wow!
Pabrai 05:03 “After that lunch, you’ll know I’m the better lunch companion.” I thought he was joking—however, two days after lunch, I received an email, his assistant to Charlie’s assistant, also cc-ing me, arranging a lunch with Charlie. In it, he said: “This couple is also from California; they think you’re more interesting than me. Charlie, you know I’m the fun one, but meet them and let them judge.”
Later, I had lunch with Charlie—to be honest, I enjoyed lunch with Charlie even more than with Buffett.
Host 05:39 Probably not the result Buffett wanted to hear.
Pabrai 05:42 His plan completely backfired. Another benefit was a deep friendship with Charlie. After that, every three or four months, I’d visit him with family or wife for dinner.
As I said, my purpose was simply to thank my hero—what I ended up getting was more than expected, a truly beautiful, warm experience.
Pabrai 06:26 Korean market is highly skewed now, mainly due to SK Hynix and Samsung.
Host 06:32 Yes, semiconductors are like this.
Pabrai 06:35 Right. The good news is, Korea is enjoying a tailwind—as the party revolves around SK Hynix, Korea supplies the “picks and shovels.” I’ve visited Samsung many times, and held SK Hynix stock. Regrettably, I broke my principles, sold these stocks that should have been held forever.
Pabrai 07:01 SK Hynix and Samsung's memory business is deeply moated. For a long time, memory business was worthless—over 20 companies fought fiercely, cut prices, and chased capacity. Nobody made money; companies collapsed, finally only three remained: Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron.
Pabrai 07:31 A fourth new entrant is essentially impossible. Discussions with Micron executives confirmed this. New entrants: 1) must overcome many patent barriers; 2) need to recruit many senior engineers/managers, which is very hard; 3) chip density/process complexity, building new wafer fabs is also highly complex, taking 10, 15, even 20 years.
So, these incumbents can’t meet current market demand. If you have a Samsung phone or iPhone, you’ve noticed prices are up—a result of memory price rises, and this will spread to all next-gen electronics.
For a country like Korea, these two companies dominate the index—take a big chunk of KOSPI. Investors holding these stocks have made good returns recently. My advice: if you already hold, don’t sell. The party’s just started.
Host 08:43 Do you think KOSPI will continue to rise?
Pabrai 08:45 The rest of KOSPI still seems undervalued to an extent. But there’s a headwind—Korea’s population is dropping fast, faster than Japan. In the long run, civilizations with declining populations face tough aggregate output challenges, which shows up in the stock market.
For population-declining countries like Korea/Japan, the only way to ensure GDP growth is to be export champions—and Korea is indeed strong at exports.
Pabrai 09:26 But there are two problems.
First, countries like the US respond with tariffs—a negative. Second, population decline drives up labor costs. So, Korea’s non-export firms face real pressure; export-oriented firms benefit, but depends on specifics.
Take Hyundai, a great company—still faces this challenge: producing a car in Alabama is now cheaper than in Korea, so production is shifting to China, India, Alabama—this is happening, a negative for Korea. Ideally, Korea needs population growth.
Pabrai 10:24 I basically follow Buffett/Munger’s philosophy—stocks are parts of businesses, not pieces of paper. When we buy a stock, we behave as if buying the whole company; we seek investments we would ideally hold forever.
Host 10:48 Hold forever?
Pabrai 10:49 Any time we must sell, we’ve made a mistake. Actually, whenever most market participants sell, they’re making mistakes.
Host 11:00 Understood. Your philosophy demands true long-term holding.
Pabrai 11:04 My investment checklist is inspired by aviation. In the US, the FAA regulates commercial aviation. After a crash, they send investigators, find the cause. If it’s a design/engineering flaw, they pragmatically estimate future crash risk—if no changes are made, how many crashes over 10-20 years, how many deaths.
Pabrai 11:51 The FAA values a human life at about $5 million today. For example, suppose a crash is found to risk 500 deaths over 10 years if uncorrected; 500 x $5 million = $2.5 billion. Any fix must cost less than $2.5 billion. If a fix costs $20 billion they won’t require it. They're pragmatic about this.
Pabrai 12:29 The aviation industry thus achieved: 1) very safe flying; 2) very cheap flying. If the FAA priced life infinitely, an LA-Seoul flight would cost $250,000. They chose a compromise. Aviation safety fixes always happen post-crash, never in a lab—improvement is always forced by accidents.
So, I thought: Apply aviation thinking to investing. What’s a "crash" in investing? Stocks that go to zero, or are sold on the way down (the “with survivors” crash). So, I decided: Only update my investment approach based on “crashes.” I studied great investors’ mistakes—see if their losses were predictable before.
Host 13:38 So you’re looking for warning signs?
Pabrai 13:41 Yes. I want to know: before take-off, can we tell if the plane will crash?
Example: Decades ago, Buffett invested in Dexter Shoes, a US shoe maker. He paid 2% of Berkshire’s shares. Soon after, shoe industry faced intense foreign competition from China/Vietnam, US manufacturing costs were too high—Dexter went bankrupt, a “crash with no survivors.”
Pabrai 14:19 So I ask: Is this a business likely to be harmed by foreign cheap labor/competition? When I look at a company, I ask this. A US bank, for example, won’t be affected by foreign labor—that question doesn’t apply; but for a US bicycle maker, maybe it does.
Pabrai 14:40 The checklist warns: “Mohnish, don’t touch this, see Dexter’s fate.” I started this checklist 16-17 years ago. It had 70-80 items at first, now expanded to 213.
Running the checklist doesn’t take long—but usually, on first run, some questions I can’t answer—shows incomplete research, need to dig deeper, then revisit. Find all “fail” items, then decide: Do we “take off”? It’s a superb tool.
Host 15:19 So each time you research a new company, you go through all 213 items?
Pabrai 15:24 Of course. Pilots must complete pre-flight checklists. For personal investors, three most important items.
Host 15:37 Please share.
Pabrai 15:38 Investors’ top reason for losing money is leverage—either company debt or buying stocks with borrowed money. Most important in investing, avoid companies with leverage.
Pabrai 15:59 Do you know IKEA? Of course. IKEA is private, never listed. Its founder died a few years ago, in over 70 years never borrowed a euro, nor sought IPO financing. Each new store was funded from prior store profits.
Founder Ingvar did this as he wanted IKEA to last 1,000 years—“Because we don’t owe anyone, nobody can stop us from operating our way.”
Pabrai 16:42 For investors, never borrow and never invest in indebted companies—it’s essential. The best companies don’t need debt to grow, as their business is strong enough.
Pabrai 16:54 Second top reason for poor investment: wrong judgement of competitive edge—the “moat” Buffett describes.
For example, Amore Pacific—you might be its customer?
Host 17:13 Yes, Amore Pacific.
Pabrai 17:16 Are you a customer?
Host 17:17 Very loyal.
Pabrai 17:19 Very loyal, good. Women worldwide crave Korean women’s skin, very envious. But even though Amore Pacific performs well, it’s still a tough business—too many competitors, women consumers always seeking better skincare. So, companies like Amore Pacific may lead for a while, but always face pressure.
Especially companies without strong brands—just high-quality products—may not survive long-term in fierce markets. So, the second key is: understand the persistence of the moat.
The third key is management/shareholder quality and integrity.
Host 18:14 Simply, corporate governance.
Pabrai 18:15 Yes, governance. Do those running the company truly care about shareholder interests, or just about getting rich? Loving money is okay, but shouldn’t love money more than the business—do they love money or the business?
Host 18:32 That’s a great question.
Pabrai 18:33 Even if you forget the 213 items, remember these three—no leverage, moat quality, management quality—you’ll avoid much trouble.
Host 18:53 About index investing…
Pabrai 19:01 For over 99% of investors, just buy index funds.
Host 19:06 Why?
Pabrai 19:07 Because, when investors want to buy SK Hynix, they say: “I don’t want the index, I know semiconductors, I know AI, I think this company will go up.” But I ask: What will SK Hynix’s cash flow in 10 or 20 years be? If an investor can’t answer with high certainty, he shouldn’t buy the stock.
Pabrai 19:33 For some businesses, this answer is clear. For example, say Korea has a power company—users can’t switch providers yearly, regulators allow certain returns—a fully understood/regulation business.
Suppose it earns 100 million annually, you can buy it for 300 million—if 100% of profits are paid out, you break even in 3 years. This is almost risk-free. That’s the type we want.
Pabrai 20:10 Usually, near risk-free opportunities appear in market-ignored industries. If something is hyped, don’t buy. In investing, look for anomalies, things that “make no sense.”
Host 20:34 In the AI field, how do you apply this?
Pabrai 20:38 In AI, my approach is simple: don’t participate.
Host 20:42 What do you mean?
Pabrai 20:43 I already said—
Host 20:46 Ignored things, got it.
Pabrai 20:48 Don’t chase hyped things. AI is hyped now. Do you know what was hyped before? Bitcoin. Then AI became the new “shiny toy;” those holding Bitcoin dumped it for AI—Bitcoin dropped from $100,000 to $70,000. Soon, AI holders will dump AI for the next “shiny toy.” Know what’s next? SpaceX IPO.
Host 21:26 That’ll be the biggest IPO ever, right?
Pabrai 21:28 It’ll be a very dazzling “shiny toy.” People will sell AI—first they dumped Bitcoin for AI, then AI for SpaceX. Don’t chase “shiny toys.”
Host 21:42 Very solid advice.
Pabrai 21:44 Sadly…
Host 21:46 What?
Pabrai 21:47 Sadly, people listen, notice my beard—
Host 21:53 It is a great beard, but…
Pabrai 21:56 And still buy anyway.
Pabrai 22:06 I don’t really care about money. Once wealth exceeds a certain level, it means nothing. I’m playing a game. To play it well, I need to know when I’ll die. Luckily, thanks to AI, I asked “Google God”—Google said: “Mohnish, you’ll die on June 11, 2054.” I said: “Thanks, Google, you made life simple.”
Pabrai 22:28 June 11, 2054, I’ll leave the world. I want before death—on June 10—my “compound engine” still running, plus my “giving engine”—my charity foundation, supporting Indian kids with quality education, such education investments yield huge social return.
So, while compounding, keep giving, and increase giving pace. For me, the process is a game—the goal is to give it all away by June 10, 2054. If I do it, it’s a beautiful game.
Host 23:02 Wonderful. So, the more you earn, the more you give and give back.
Pabrai 23:07 Also, I hope to eat more Korean food—I deeply love Korean cuisine.
Host 23:15 What’s your favorite Korean dish?
Pabrai 23:16 순두부찌개 (soft tofu stew)!
Host 23:18 Soft tofu stew is great.
Pabrai 23:19 Also grilled beef. I’m a simple man—give me tofu stew and grilled beef, crack some eggs in, perfect.
Host 23:28 Last question—if you want to accumulate wealth, any motto for us?
Pabrai 23:35 My ending motto: If wealth is lost, only material things are lost; if health is lost, something more important is lost; if character is lost, everything is lost. So, don’t overly worry about wealth, pay more attention to health, and guard your character with all your energy.
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