Warren Buffett disciple Guy Spier’s rare cancer made him revalue everything
Well-known value investor Adam Spier He first came to public attention in 2007, when he and his partner paid more than $650,000 to have lunch with the world’s most famous value investor, Warren Buffett, at a charity auction.
Spier, who calls Buffett his hero, founded the Zurich-based Aquamarine fund in 1997. He emulated the investment philosophy of the Oracle of Omaha, which was based on the premise of compound interest. Spier hoped the approach would help him create a similarly long-lasting, but more modest, investment legacy for Aquamarine.
And it worked for years. From 1997-2025, Aquamarine’s total return outpaced the S&P 500, long considered the ultimate measure of a fund’s success. But while returning from a ski trip with his family in November 2024, a medical emergency forced Spier to confront the realities of his own mortality and redefine how to decide what was valuable in life.
“It was a very cold day in November, and I had a massive seizure on the car ride to Zurich,” Spier recalled in an interview for CNBC Cures’ podcast “The Path with Becky Quick.”
During a recent interview, Spier said, “I was sitting next to my wife in the car. She didn’t know what was going on.” Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting.
Spier was taken to the hospital where he received an MRI.
“When I woke up the next day, I realized I had a brain tumor, and my life changed completely at that time,” Spier said.
It was grade 4 glioblastoma, an aggressive and fast-growing type of brain cancer. Glioblastomas are rare and affect roughly. 4 out of every 100,000 people. There is no truly effective treatment for the disease, as the average patient survival is only 15 months after diagnosis. The five-year survival rate is less than 7%. These figures have not changed for decades.
In the year after his diagnosis, Spier underwent multiple surgeries to remove cancerous tumors in his brain. But when the cancer returned following the second resection, he realized that standard-of-care treatment would not be enough to keep the disease at bay.
“The tumor is inside. It’s like seeds in the soil or a fungus. It seems to grow everywhere. So they can’t completely resect it. And even if you do a complete resection, you’re still left with some,” Spier said.
Close the money making fund, enjoy life
Spier began to reprioritize his life. He knew he couldn’t continue running Aquamarine. Earlier this year it gave its investors their money back and annual letterHe made a moving and emotional statement about why he was closing the fund. Spier said it was a heartbreaking decision.
“It sucks to have to write about the fact that you closed your fund,” Spier said. “That’s the way your life is… or the way you thought your life was going to go… I mean, it’s not the way you wanted it to be. It’s kind of a tragedy and it sucks.”
But ultimately, Spier said the decision was liberating. This reminded him to value the time he spent with his loved ones rather than striving to accumulate wealth and allowed him to seek out opportunities to enjoy life.
“All of a sudden I didn’t have all the time in the world,” Spier said. “Grim Reaper’s batting average is 100%. He’ll beat us all in the end.”
Spier said he hates to compare his remaining days to fighting cancer and prefers to see it as a death game where you earn points for every day you live. He says his goal is to collect as many points as possible and enjoy those days as much as possible.
Noting the average 15-month survival rate, he said: “I’m getting stronger in a way. So every day is basically a gift, so let me celebrate. I’m using NetJets a lot more. I’m flying a lot more business and first class. We had an expensive bottle of wine last night.”
That doesn’t mean Spier is immune to grieving.
“I feel sad that I will never see my grandchildren again, I will never see my children get married, I will never see my children graduate from college… Who cares about money at this point?”
Spier, pictured here with his family, says he’s sad that he probably won’t be able to see his children reach important milestones in their lives.
Adam Spier
Spier also said there were times in his life when he wished he could do more than just try to make money in the stock market. “You see these amazing people working their whole lives to make some discoveries that can make our lives better,” Spier said. “I have some regrets in that regard.”
But Spier also knows his wealth can help make a difference in the lives of others diagnosed with glioblastoma.
Glioblastoma patients face a difficult situation. Without effective treatment, people diagnosed are often left in a kind of limbo where forgoing traditional approaches to cancer, such as chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, can result in a shorter life. But continuing these treatments can take a devastating mental and physical toll, even though it can add months to their lives. A new approach is needed.
Spier likened the glioblastoma patient population to trying to fill a bathtub with an open drain. More and more people are diagnosed with glioblastoma every year. But because they die so quickly, the population of people living with the disease never grows large enough to make finding a cure an attractive investment target for big pharmaceutical companies.
“There are a lot of people who get the disease, but the tub is never filled with focus groups and support groups because it’s constantly being emptied,” he said.
Spier hopes he can make an impact at this point.
Spier is committed to using his platform to raise awareness about glioblastoma and pushes for new treatments for others diagnosed with the disease.
Adam Spier
“Maybe I should finance some of this research. I can take a certain part of the money I have saved and finance it, and I am willing and happy to do that,” he said.
That’s the message Spier wants to spread. She wants to use her platform to raise awareness of the disease that she and many others like her experience.
“There are a lot of gaps in what we can do to improve treatments for rare diseases that need some more attention,” Spier said. “I’ll probably invest for a good reason and know that I’m not doing this to make money. I’m doing this to advance science.”
While it is no longer possible for Spier to build Aquamarine, his previous career ambition, into an investment institution that will carry him decades into the future, he now finds himself in a position to use the tools he developed in a life spent studying financial markets as a tool to help improve the lives of thousands of desperate families searching for hope.
This is a legacy worth remembering and a life that has the potential to provide value to future generations.
More about glioblastoma can be found at: the Glioblastoma Foundation. Sign up for more stories like this CNBC Improves Newsletter and payment CNBC Treatments online.
