Himalaya Capital

Himalaya Capital was founded by Li Lu in 1997; its legal entity, Himalaya Capital Management LLC, is a Delaware limited liability company. Li Lu has been chairman and managing member since January 1998 and controls and is the principal owner of the firm. He has run the firm’s principal fund, Himalaya Capital Investors, LP, continuously since January 1, 1998.⁠[1][2][3][4]

By the founder’s recollection, the firm started with only a small sum pooled with the help of a few close friends, and he served as chairman, fund manager, secretary and analyst himself; the fund’s launch coincided with the 1997 Asian financial crisis, it suffered a 19% paper loss in its first year, one of its largest investors withdrew the following year, and a few important investments in the second half of 1998 brought the fund exceptional returns over the next two years.⁠[5][5][5][5][5][5]

To retain and attract investors, the fund used an equity long-short strategy for several years to manage volatility. The founder said that during this period the fund suffered no loss in the 2001–2002 crisis after the internet bubble and its assets under management grew significantly, but constant trading kept him from focusing on long-term research; he said in 2013 that the firm had stopped shorting about nine years earlier.⁠[5][5][5][6][6]

In 2004, Charlie Munger became Li Lu’s investment partner and helped him completely reorganize the firm along the lines of Buffett’s and Munger’s early investment partnerships: investors who stayed signed long-term lock-up agreements, the fund stopped accepting new investors, and the new fund retained part of the original portfolio, including BYD. By the founder’s own report, the new fund returned 36% a year compounded net of all expenses from the fourth quarter of 2004 to the end of 2009, and more than 29% a year compounded since its inception in January 1998.⁠[5][5][5][5]

Munger himself was also an investor in the fund: according to Li Lu in 2024, Munger reinvested the nearly tenfold gain from the only investment idea he found in fifty years of reading Barron’s into Himalaya’s fund, earning another tenfold-plus return.⁠[7]

BYD is one of Himalaya’s best-known long-term holdings. In September 2008, Berkshire HathawayBerkshire HathawayBerkshire Hathaway Inc. is a multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States (NYSE: BRK.A/BRK.B), with businesses spanning insurance, railroads, energy, manufacturing, and retail. Warren Buffett took control of the company in 1965 and ran it until 2025, and Greg Abel succeeded him as CEO at the start of 2026. The company long held stakes in several U.S. banks, including M&T (1991–2020), Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, which it successively reduced or exited between 2020 and 2024.Open the full entry’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings announced it would pay $230 million for a 10% stake in BYD; Li Lu said it was Himalaya that introduced a reputable investor like Berkshire in 2008. As of December 2024, Himalaya had held BYD for 22 years, during which its stock fell by more than 50% at least six times and once by more than 80%.⁠[7][8][7][7]

On November 4, 2011, Himalaya Capital’s registration as an investment adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) became effective, under SEC file number 801-72763; the firm’s former names include Himalaya Management LLC.⁠[9][9][9]

Himalaya Capital sponsors the value investing course created with Professor Jiang Guohua at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management; in the course’s opening lecture on October 23, 2015, Li Lu said that as far as he knew it was the only course of its kind in China. The course marked its tenth anniversary in December 2024.⁠[10][10][7]

Himalaya Capital Management LLC’s Central Index Key (CIK) on SEC EDGAR is 1709323, and its 13F file number is 028-18090. Its first Form 13F-HR quarterly holdings report covered the quarter ended December 31, 2016 and was filed on June 14, 2017, when the firm’s address was in Pasadena, California; it listed only two Section 13(f) securities, Baidu American depositary receipts and Sina, with a combined value of about $112 million.⁠[11][12][11][12][12][13][13][12]

On March 9, 2018, the firm’s investment adviser notice filing in Washington State became effective. As of March 2026, its principal office and place of business is at 1301 Second Avenue in Seattle, and it has an additional office in Bellevue, Washington.⁠[9][3][3]

On March 13, 2020, Himalaya Capital organized a video conference in which three Chinese COVID-19 experts spoke with nearly 300 U.S. scientists, medical practitioners and policymakers, and, with the experts’ approval, posted their presentations and the conference links on the firm’s website for the public.⁠[14][14]

According to the Form ADV annual amendment filed on March 31, 2026, as of December 31, 2025 Himalaya Capital managed about $21.39 billion in regulatory assets under management (RAUM) on a discretionary basis, all in two pooled investment vehicle accounts; the firm had about 21 employees, 15 of whom perform investment advisory functions.⁠[2][3][3][3]

The firm serves a single mini-master fund structure: the master fund, Himalaya Capital Investors, L.P., is a Delaware limited partnership formerly known as LL Investment Partners, L.P.; the offshore feeder fund, Himalaya Capital Investors (Offshore), L.P., is a Cayman Islands exempted limited partnership registered with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority that invests substantially all its assets in the master fund. The two funds’ general partners are LL Group, LLC and LL Group (Offshore), LLC, both controlled by Li Lu along with the firm. The master fund has about 638 beneficial owners, of which the firm and its related persons own about 19%.⁠[2][2][3][2][2][3][3]

The firm charges no management fee and is compensated only through incentive allocations to the general partners: 25% of net appreciation after recovery of prior losses and a 6% per annum (compounded annually) preferred return to limited partners; the fund also reimburses the firm’s actual operating expenses up to 0.375% of average annual net asset value. The minimum subscription for new limited partners is $25 million, and each must be both an “accredited investor” and a “qualified purchaser.” The brochure states that neither the firm nor its supervised persons have been involved in any legal or disciplinary event material to evaluating its business.⁠[2][2][2][2][2]

As of October 2026, the firm’s most recent Form 13F-HR covers the quarter ended June 30, 2026 and was signed and filed on August 14, 2026. It lists eight Section 13(f) securities with a combined reported value of about $3.70 billion; by value they are Alphabet Class A shares, Alphabet Class C shares, American depositary shares of PDD Holdings (parent of Pinduoduo), Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares, East West Bancorp, Crocs, Tencent Music American depositary shares and Apple.⁠[11][15][15][15][16][16][16][16][16][16][16][16]

The 13F reported value is measured differently from assets under management: Form 13F covers only an institution’s long positions in U.S.-listed Section 13(f) securities and excludes short positions and shares traded on non-U.S. exchanges, so the roughly $3.70 billion is only the value of U.S.-listed holdings at that date, far below the regulatory assets under management reported in Form ADV; the firm’s holdings in non-U.S. markets such as Hong Kong and mainland China (for example BYD) do not appear in its 13F.⁠[17][17][17][2]

The firm takes as its motto Charlie Munger’s saying that “the highest form which civilization can reach is a seamless web of deserved trust,” describes itself as embracing the value investment principles of Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, and regards itself as a business owner, aiming to be a long-term owner of high-quality companies with a substantial “economic moat,” great growth potential and trustworthy management; some of its holdings date back to the fund’s inception.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

According to the brochure the firm files with the SEC, it seeks capital appreciation over a very long period while minimizing the risk of permanent capital impairment, usually buying securities at a deep discount to intrinsic value and often holding for five to ten years or longer; it defines real risk as permanent impairment of capital rather than price volatility, and therefore accepts a concentrated portfolio and interim volatility, largely avoiding shorting except in very special situations. The fund may invest up to 40% of net asset value in private companies and may borrow up to 50% of net asset value, but the firm says that since inception it has borrowed only to pay redemptions and has used very little leverage.⁠[2][2][2][2][2][2][2]

The firm focuses mainly on publicly traded companies in Asia and North America, traditionally Greater China, the United States, Japan and South Korea, the East Asian markets strongly influenced by Confucianism; in its brochure it says it currently finds better opportunities in Asia than in North America, especially in Greater China, and that it has developed deep knowledge of traditional industries such as consumer products, utilities and financial services as well as newer areas such as alternative energy, semiconductors, the internet and artificial intelligence. Li Lu likened this approach in 2026 to spreading Buffett’s “church with a casino attached” to other countries: “We chose to build that church in Asia as well as other regions.”⁠[1][2][2][2][18]

Its clients are mainly university endowments, foundations, family offices, individuals and pension plans; the partnership is generally closed to new partners, with selective discussions held only with referrals from current partners. The firm warns on its website that neither it nor Li Lu proactively provides financial advice or solicits capital from individual investors who are not qualified purchasers, and that any representation suggesting otherwise may be fraudulent.⁠[1][1]

The firm lists six core values: honesty, accountability, integrity, meritocracy, confidentiality and loyalty, and says it operates with its investors, co-workers, investee companies and business partners in “a seamless web of deserved trust.”⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1][1]

Himalaya Capital: Official website: https://www.himcap.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

Himalaya Capital Chinese website: Official website: https://www.himcap.com/cn/home (opens in a new window).⁠[19]