The 95-year-old Berkshire Hathaway chairman announced that he will donate 9 million Class B shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and 1 million Class B shares each to the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the NoVo Foundation.
The Gates Foundation, which had been the largest beneficiary of Buffett’s annual Berkshire stock donations since 2006, was omitted for the first time in 20 years. Since launching the partnership, Buffett has donated more than $47 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock to the foundation established by Bill Gates and his former wife, Melinda French Gates.
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In a statement accompanying the donations, Buffett reiterated his long-term plan to distribute his remaining Berkshire stake.
“My goal is to dispose of all of my Berkshire shares within about eight years,” Buffett said. “As I explained last year, my children are unfortunately growing older. I have every hope that the three of them are able to carry out the disposal of my shares by December 31, 2034.”
Warren Buffett on Gates and Epstein
Speaking to CNBC after the announcement, Buffett confirmed that his decision to stop donating to the Gates Foundation followed his review of congressional testimony concerning Bill Gates’ relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Buffett described Gates’ association with Epstein as “distasteful” but stopped short of condemning his longtime friend.
“While it’s distasteful, while he made mistakes, I’ve made mistakes in hiring all kinds of people, choosing friends and finding out later that one way or another they weren’t what I thought they were,” Buffett said.
“So, I found nothing in there that was beyond what I could picture myself doing.”
Buffett added that Gates had not been surprised by the decision and revealed the two met for about three hours, roughly three weeks ago.
“At some point I had read what Congress had come up with, I’d read everything and all I can say is I don’t know whether I’ve done dumber things but I’ve done many dumb things in life,” Buffett said.
Despite ending the philanthropic arrangement, Buffett stressed that the pair remain close.
“It has been a wonderful friendship. I cherish the time we spend together. I hope we have much more of it ahead,” he said, recalling the many years since they first met in 1991.
Bill Gates acknowledged his mistake
Gates appeared before the US House Oversight Committee in June, where he was questioned about his interactions with Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
According to testimony released by the committee, Gates said he was introduced to Epstein in 2011 as someone who claimed he could help raise billions of dollars for global health initiatives supported by the Gates Foundation.
Gates told lawmakers that although he knew Epstein had faced prior legal issues, he did not fully understand the extent of his crimes at the time.
“I should never have met with Epstein in the first place,” Gates testified. “Based on what I know now, I understand that even if he had delivered the donors he promised, it would not have justified associating with him.”
Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution and procuring a person under 18 for prostitution.
End of a philanthropic era
Buffett’s decision marks the end of one of the largest philanthropic partnerships in modern history. When he pledged in 2006 to make annual donations to what was then the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, he described it as a lifetime commitment, believing his children were not yet prepared to oversee his fortune.
But his views have changed and he now feels that his three children are fully capable of carrying out his charitable plans.
Even without Buffett’s future donations, he noted that the Gates Foundation still holds “very substantial resources. The foundation distributed approximately $8.5 billion in charitable grants during 2025.
