Li Lu, a renowned value investor and founder of the investment firm Himalaya Capital, earned global respect after backing winners like BYD early. Born in China in 1966, Lu was a student leader during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 that would ultimately lead to the Tiananmen Square massacre later that year.
Lu would eventually move to the U.S., where he attended a lecture by the legendary value investor Warren Buffett at Columbia University, which inspired him to take up investing. In 1997, Lu launched Himalaya Capital, now a $3.5 billion investment manager that holds nine stocks.
In 2003, Lu met the late Charlie Munger, who was Buffett’s right-hand man and served as vice chair of Berkshire Hathaway until his death in 2023. Munger also provided Lu and Himalaya with $88 million to manage. Munger often described Lu as the “Chinese Warren Buffett.” At the end of 2025, Lu had 75% of Himalaya’s portfolio invested in just three stocks.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Alphabet: 44% of portfolio
According to Himalaya’s latest filings, the fund had 44% of its capital invested in Alphabet (GOOG 0.19%) (GOOGL 0.15%), split equally between class A and C shares.
It’s been a great call, with Alphabet shares up over 86% in the past year. Not only did Google receive a favorable ruling in a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit seeking to break up the tech behemoth, but Alphabet has also shown that its artificial intelligence (AI) models can compete in this new world and protect market share from other AI chatbots, at least in the traditional search market.
Today’s Change
(-0.19%) $-0.57
Current Price
$305.73
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$3.7T
Day’s Range
$301.00 – $306.68
52wk Range
$142.66 – $350.15
Volume
104K
Avg Vol
20M
Gross Margin
59.68%
Dividend Yield
0.27%
Furthermore, Alphabet has other fast-growing businesses that are leaders in their respective sectors. YouTube is a digital media juggernaut that continues to grow its audience with a range of short- and long-form content. Waymo is leading the new autonomous ride-hailing market, and Google Cloud is also a strong business that can leverage AI.
I think there are still questions about what the future of search will look like as AI gets better and better, but trading at 26 times forward earnings, that’s certainly not a bad valuation for such a strong AI-oriented company.
2. Bank of America: 16%
Himalaya also has a sizable position in Bank of America (BAC +0.33%), the second-largest bank by assets in the U.S. While bank stocks have struggled this year, as the conflict in Iran has led oil prices to surge, banks have generally performed well over the past year, due to declining interest rates and a steepening yield curve, as well as hopes for deregulation.
Recently, Michelle Bowman, vice chair of supervision at the Federal Reserve, previewed upcoming changes to bank regulatory capital requirements that may finalize rules first initiated in response to the Great Recession well over a decade ago.
Today’s Change
(0.33%) $0.15
Current Price
$46.98
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$337B
Day’s Range
$46.12 – $47.18
52wk Range
$33.06 – $57.55
Volume
711
Avg Vol
40M
Dividend Yield
2.34%
Capital requirements are expected to decline under the new regulatory capital framework, a big win, given that banking regulators under former President Joe Biden’s administration appeared poised to raise them significantly. The lower the regulatory capital requirements are, the more room banks have to lend, issue dividends, and buy back stock.
Bank of America has tremendous scale across a variety of financial businesses, including consumer and commercial banking, wealth and asset management, and investment banking, among other areas. It’s a good stock for long-term exposure to the U.S. economy, and large banks, in general, have performed well due to their scale, which has enabled them to better handle the burden of higher technology and regulatory costs.
3. PDD Holdings: 15%
Himalaya’s third-largest position is in the Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings (PDD 3.27%), which operates massive brands like Pinduoduo in China and Temu, a global brand likely more recognizable to U.S. consumers.
Today’s Change
(-3.27%) $-3.29
Current Price
$97.43
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$136B
Day’s Range
$96.88 – $99.50
52wk Range
$87.11 – $139.41
Volume
134K
Avg Vol
7.8M
Gross Margin
56.65%
The stock has struggled over the past five years, down over 36%. Part of that is due to struggles in the Chinese economy and with consumer confidence in the world’s second-largest economy. However, other struggles can be attributed to rising competition among e-commerce players in China, which has led to margin contraction due to higher expenses.
Still, China is a country that offers large and growing tech stocks at lower valuations than the U.S. does. For instance, PDD currently only trades at 8 times forward earnings. For example, the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR® ETF (XLK +0.34%), an ETF that tracks all the technology stocks in the S&P 500, trades at a forward PE ratio of 23.9. If the Chinese economy achieves its full potential, companies like PDD are certain to benefit.
However, investors should make sure they understand the current economic challenges and regulatory environment in China before investing. It’s very different from the situation in the United States.
