Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway made an unusual investment three years ago by investing $735 million in Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW), a cloud-based data platform provider, when it went public in September 2020.

The investment was not in line with the Oracle of Omaha's investment philosophy as Snowflake was richly valued at that time. Also, Buffett has historically stayed away from investing in initial public offerings (IPOs), so Berkshire's stake in Snowflake was no doubt surprising. However, Berkshire's Snowflake investment paid off impressively earlier on as the stock soared in 2021, jumping to more than $400 from its IPO price of $120 in just a year.

But then, it took a big beating amid the broader sell-off in tech stocks last year and is 60% off its all-time high that it recorded in November 2021. It is worth noting that Snowflake has continued to underperform the market in 2023 as well, gaining 11% as compared to the tech-laden Nasdaq-100 Technology Sector index's 42% surge.

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Source Fool.com