Warren Buffett is quietly ending one of the biggest philanthropic relationships in history
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has ended one of the biggest philanthropic partnerships in history with the Gates Foundation after nearly two decades and $48 billion in donations.
This year, the 95-year-old former Berkshire Hathaway CEO is donating a total of 12 million Class B Berkshire shares to charitable organizations, worth just under $6 billion. In a striking change from the past 19 years—the Gates Foundation will receive none of it.
The news comes as Buffett and Gates’ relationship has deteriorated over the past several years starting with the Microsoft founder’s divorce from philanthropist Melinda French Gates in 2021 and later because of Gates’ alleged ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Buffett is keeping his annual donations close to home this year, with all of the shares designated for foundations associated with or run by his family. The remainder of his $140 billion worth of Berkshire shares will be disbursed by 2034 to the organizations run by his family, he announced Tuesday.
“Of course, mortality is unpredictable, but my remaining shares will be donated to the four foundations one way or the other by December 31, 2034,” he wrote.
Tuesday’s announcement reveals the largest allocation of 9 million shares, worth about $4.5 billion, will go to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which Buffett founded in 1964 and named after his late wife after her death in 2004. Buffett’s daughter Susie Buffett serves as chair of the organization’s board.
Another 1 million shares worth about $500 million each are destined for the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the NoVo Foundation, which are run, respectively, by Buffett’s sons Howard Buffett and Peter Buffett. The Sherwood Foundation, which was founded by and is overseen by Susie Buffett, will also receive 1 million shares.
While Buffett has been donating to these family foundations for years, it was the Gates Foundation that received the bulk of the billionaire’s charitable giving for nearly two decades. Even just last year, Buffett donated 9.4 million shares to the Gates Foundation worth a whopping $4.6 billion.
The change in Buffett’s charitable giving is significant given Buffett made an “irrevocable” lifetime pledge to the Gates Foundation in 2006 in which he promised to donate to the Gates Foundation as long as either Bill Gates or Melinda French Gates was alive and actively involved with the organization, among other stipulations.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported Buffett would pause his midyear donation to the Gates Foundation so he could see the findings of a review by law firm WilmerHale into the organization’s potential ties to Jeffrey Epstein which is expected to release its results this summer.