Li Lu's Himalaya Capital: seven stocks, nearly half in Alphabet
The investor Charlie Munger trusted with his family's money holds only a handful of companies. Five quarters of Himalaya's filings and the case for fewer, better investments.
Who he is and why people copy him
Li Lu was a student leader in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. He escaped China, studied at Columbia University and founded Himalaya Capital Management in 1997. He became close to Charlie Munger, who invested with him and spoke of him with great admiration. He is also remembered for bringing the Chinese carmaker BYD to the attention of Munger and Warren Buffett, which led to Berkshire's investment in 2008.
His filings attract readers because they offer a rare view of what a student of Munger does with his own ideas.
The ideas behind the portfolio
Munger's philosophy is to hold a few outstanding businesses for a very long time. He argued that a handful of very good ideas are enough for a lifetime, that you should learn from many disciplines instead of only from finance, and that the main thing is to avoid stupidity, not to seek brilliance. A business with a lasting competitive advantage, a trustworthy management and a price that is not absurd is worth owning for decades and not worth trading.
Li Lu adds a perspective formed outside the United States: he looks for companies that benefit from long-term change in the world economy, including in China, and is willing to hold through frightening swings.
What a Form 13F does and does not show
The filing lists US-listed shares at the end of a quarter. Himalaya may also hold positions that do not appear here, such as shares listed elsewhere, so the picture is partial. Chinese companies listed in the US, such as PDD, are included. The report is up to 45 days old when it appears.
For a portfolio with so few names, one sale or one purchase changes the shape of the whole report.
The portfolio over the last five quarters
From June 2025 to June 2026 the reported portfolio grew from $2.69 billion to $3.70 billion and held between 7 and 13 positions. It is the most concentrated of the portfolios with real size: the effective number of positions fell from 4.7 to 3.2, and the ten largest are 100% of the book.
In June 2025 Alphabet was already the largest holding at 32.8%, followed by Bank of America (18.4%), PDD (17.9%), Berkshire Hathaway (16.2%) and East West Bancorp (10.4%). A year later Alphabet is 47.9%, PDD 22.2%, Berkshire 15.0% and East West Bancorp 9.7%, and Bank of America is gone.
Ten largest positions at the end of the latest quarter (2026-06-30) and the same names at the start of the period (2025-06-30), as a share of the US-listed stocks in the report (7 positions, $3.7 billion in total).
| Position | 2026-06-30 | 2025-06-30 |
|---|---|---|
| Alphabet | 47.9% | 32.8% |
| Pdd | 22.2% | 17.9% |
| Berkshire Hathaway | 15.0% | 16.2% |
| East West Bancorp | 9.7% | 10.4% |
| Crocs | 2.9% | — |
| Tencent Music Entertainm | 1.5% | — |
| Apple | 0.9% | 0.8% |
| Ten largest together | 100.0% | 100.0% |
What changed quarter by quarter
Alphabet was raised in each of the four quarters: by 4.8 percentage points to the quarter to September 2025, by 6.2 to December, by 1.0 to March and by 3.1 to June. In the quarter to December 2025 Crocs entered with 1.5%. In the quarter to March 2026 Bank of America was cut by 11.5 points, to 4.6%, and the number of positions rose briefly to 13, with several small new ones: Tencent Music (1.9%), S&P Global, H&R Block and Moody's (each 1.6%).
In the quarter to June 2026 Bank of America (4.6%), Occidental Petroleum (3.0%), S&P Global (1.6%) and H&R Block (1.6%) were all closed, PDD grew by 7.5 points to 22.2%, and the portfolio returned to 7 names. The pattern is clear: small tests come and go, while the large holdings only change by adding, and the largest, Alphabet, grows.
Changes between consecutive filings. A share is measured as a part of the reported stock portfolio; it can move because of price changes too, so read it together with the text.
| Quarter end | Positions | Opened | Closed | Biggest rise in share | Biggest fall in share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-09-30 | 8 → 8 | — | — | Alphabet (+4.8 pp) | Berkshire Hathaway (−2.2 pp) |
| 2025-12-31 | 8 → 8 | Crocs (1.5%) | Sable Offshore (0.7%) | Alphabet (+6.2 pp) | Pdd (−4.2 pp) |
| 2026-03-31 | 8 → 13 | Tencent Music Entertainm (1.9%), S&p Global (1.6%), Block H & R (1.6%) | — | Occidental Petroleum (+1.3 pp) | Bk Of America (−11.5 pp) |
| 2026-06-30 | 13 → 7 | — | Bk Of America (4.6%), Occidental Petroleum (3.0%), S&p Global (1.6%) | Pdd (+7.5 pp) | Tencent Music Entertainm (−0.4 pp) |
What to take away, and what to doubt
The lesson is conviction, in the most literal sense: nearly half the reported money is in one company. It also shows the Munger habit of doing very little: four of the five largest positions of a year ago are still among the largest now.
A portfolio like this has real risks. A single bad outcome in one or two companies decides the result, and the Chinese holding adds the risk of regulation and of the rules for foreign listings. The success of a famous student of Munger does not prove that the method works for anyone who copies the list, because the skill is in knowing the businesses, not in the list.
Where it meets our bots
The distance from this method to our bots is large. Our reference bot owns five hundred companies and makes no judgement on any of them, while Li Lu owns seven and judges each very carefully. The bot that holds the twenty calmest stocks has a little of the Munger spirit in its preference for steady businesses, but it chooses by price behaviour, not by quality.
All accounts are virtual and public. The guides below explain the rules.
Related strategy guides
Buy and hold the S&P 500: the yardstick for every strategy
Low-volatility stocks: the twenty calmest
Momentum stocks: the ten strongest of the year
Portfolios
Portfolio builder
Set the shares of stocks, bonds, gold or take famous models, mix them, and see how such a portfolio lived through every era of history.
Goal finder
Say what you need — for example, 6 % a year over 10 years with a drop no deeper than −25 % — and see which models and mixes met it, and in what share of historical periods.
Retirement: how much to withdraw
The 4 % rule tested on 60 portfolios: which share of the money you could take out every year, and when it failed.