**Viral News Snippet (Fact-Checked): "Warren Buffett’s Secret ‘Last Letter’ Leak—Berkshire Hathaway to Dump Apple for Gold?"**

Viral News Snippet (Fact-Checked): “Warren Buffett’s Secret ‘Last Letter’ Leak—Berkshire Hathaway to Dump Apple for Gold?”

Claim: A leaked internal memo from Warren Buffett’s personal assistant claims the 94-year-old Oracle of Omaha has dictated a “final directive” to liquidate Berkshire Hathaway’s entire $150 billion Apple stake by Q2 2025 and pour 40% of the proceeds into physical gold ETFs, citing “Armageddon insurance.”

Real vs. Fake:

🚨 FAKE. This rumor originates from a satirical website (BuffettBomb.com), not from Berkshire Hathaway. No such “last letter” exists. Buffett’s actual 2024 shareholder letter (released March 2024) reaffirmed Apple as a “core holding” and dismissed gold as “unproductive” in his 2023 annual meeting. Berkshire’s latest SEC filing (Q4 2024) showed Apple holdings unchanged. The gold ETF claim contradicts Buffett’s lifetime anti-gold stance. Scammers may use this to trick retirees into buying gold penny stocks. Verdict: Fact-checkers at Reuters, Bloomberg, and Berkshire’s official website have confirmed the letter is a fabrication.

What’s Actually Happening: True—Berkshire recently trimmed its Apple stake by 1% for tax-loss harvesting (Jan 2025), but that’s routine portfolio rebalancing, not “dumping.” The original satirical article, posted Feb 14, was labeled “Purely Fiction.” It has since been screen-captured and shared out of context on Telegram groups.