About Bobby Kotick
Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard, has continued to make public appearances and comments on a range of topics following the completion of Microsoft's acquisition of his company. In a May 2025 interview at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, Kotick described the event as "a reminder of how important capitalism is as the foundation of democracy." He also expressed concerns about U.S. fiscal policy, stating that "neither one of the political parties seems to have a huge appetite for really going after spending" and that "K through 12 US expenditures are something in the neighborhood of a trillion dollars but we're now at a place where kids are graduating at 30% of their grade level expectation." Kotick has also discussed his philanthropic focus on veterans' employment, noting that veterans are "two to three times less likely than an ordinary citizen to find a job."
Kotick has reflected on his tenure at Activision Blizzard and the Microsoft deal in various interviews. He stated that the company was "very surprised" by the workplace culture allegations filed against it, but said they were resolved "in a way where the bulk of that money is going to our employees, not to the state." He described the Microsoft acquisition as a response to the need for talent in AI and machine learning, saying "Microsoft is clearly right now the leader in AI and machine learning." Kotick has also shared anecdotes about his career, including a story about Steve Jobs insisting he drop out of college, and has commented on the video game industry's evolution, noting that "smartphones became the dominant form of delivery devices for video games" and that the industry has seen "the democratization of video games."
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Bobby Kotick's recent appearances.
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Transcript (8 segments)
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Interviewer0:00
All right, so that's what you're hearing from the Berkshire managers who are actually on the front lines trying to deal with all of this. There's been a lot more to talk about with them this time around, and we will continue to hear pieces about how they're managing with all of this. Joining us right now to talk more about Berkshire and what we've been seeing over the years is Activision founder Bobby Kotick. He is a longtime Berkshire watcher and has been coming here for more than 30 years, I think, Bobby, which is really hard to imagine.
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Bobby Kotick0:27
I don't know exactly when I started. It was when I bought my first Berkshire share. I think that was in '94, but I don't remember exactly.
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Interviewer0:35
Why'd you start coming and what brings you back every year?
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Bobby Kotick0:38
For me, this is probably the most important event that's a reminder of how important capitalism is as the foundation of democracy. So it's almost like a religious experience from that perspective, just the constant reminder of how integral to our democracy capitalism is.
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Interviewer1:04
Do you learn something every year when you're here, or is it a resetting of what you already know?
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Bobby Kotick1:09
I think probably the greatest insight I just took away from the last couple of hours is there's this great perception of market volatility that's existed over the last three or four months, but as Warren pointed out, the S&P is down 3%. That's not much volatility. I think it takes someone like Warren with the clarity of thought to actually remind us that there's been historically a lot more volatility in markets than what we've seen in the last five years. I have to admit, I'm throwing out all these shareholder questions I had as a result, because it was what's going on with the treasury markets, are they going to dump foreign ownership of these things, what's going to happen with the... like all these questions that were so petrified as to what was happening. I got to throw all these out now. They were relevant three weeks ago and now they're not.
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Interviewer2:04
Almost all the way back. Yeah, although at the same time, as much as you want to take a big picture perspective and say that we've been through these crises and trials and challenges before, it does seem there's certain extraordinary things happening right now. If you were running a business, to say there's such a wide range of potential policy outcomes and what it's going to mean for the economy right with the tariffs. So I guess that's... you know, the messages were all in suspense for a few months, and Warren saying he doesn't really feel like this is the way to wage that fight.
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Bobby Kotick2:31
I think the greater challenge though is if you think about where we are fiscally as a country. 37.5 trillion and growing of debt, for now more than 5 years a debt to GDP ratio at 120% or more. I think one of the things that we have to start to come to terms with is you can't have successive years of a trillion and a half and $2 trillion dollars of deficits, a debt at 37.5 trillion with a trillion dollars a year of interest, and not address spending. And it's not just federal spending, it's going to be municipal spending, state spending, but spending has gotten out of control. When you think about 5% of individual taxpayers contributing 66% of taxes, and 20 companies contributing 25% of corporate taxes, we need to do a better job of making sure that we're not actually putting a greater tax burden on the US. I don't know that it's sustainable, but we have to start addressing spending. Neither one of the political parties seems to have a huge appetite for really going after spending. DOGE is trying to make things more efficient, but if you don't go after some of the big ticket items, whether that's Social Security, Medicare, defense spending, if you don't go after some of the big nuts out there, not to mention interest on what we pay on all these things, you're not going to be able to bring that down. Think about it, Medicaid and Medicare in the last four years are up 45 to 50%. That's just not sustainable. And then you look at the things that nobody wants to talk about. K through 12 US expenditures are something in the neighborhood of a trillion dollars, but we're now at a place where kids are graduating at 30% of their grade level expectation in math and science and reading. I think there's 50 million plus people in the K through 12 system, but in almost every grade in every subject, if you're averaging 30%, and that's now two generations.
