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Warren Buffett said that it didn’t come as a surprise when he told Bill Gates about his decision to stop donating to the Gates Foundation after partnering on the group’s philanthropic initiatives for two decades.
Buffett, 95, didn’t include the Gates Foundation when he announced the donation of almost $6 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock on Tuesday, a move which follows revelations about interactions between Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, and late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The billionaire told CNBC he “had read what Congress came up with. I’d read everything,” after Gates recently met with Congress amid lawmakers’ investigations into Epstein. Gates hasn’t been accused of crimes and has repeatedly expressed regret for associating with Epstein.
“While it’s distasteful, while he made mistakes, I made mistakes, hiring all kinds of people, or choosing friends, and then finding out later that, one way or other, they weren’t what I thought they were,” Buffett said. “I found nothing in there that was beyond what I could picture myself doing.”
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Buffett has donated over $47 billion in Berkshire stock to the philanthropic organization founded by Gates since 2006.
This year, the legendary investor instead focused his donations on four family foundations that are run by his children, Susie, Howard and Peter.
Buffett explained that his children are getting older and are ready to distribute his wealth, saying he has told the “three children that it is theirs, and it’s their responsibility to get it done well.”
ARE YOU A NEW STOCK MARKET INVESTOR IN JUNE 2026? HERE’S WARREN BUFFETT’S ADVICE
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BRK.A | BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC. | 733,180.00 | -3,820.00 | -0.52% |
He also accelerated the timeline to distribute his remaining Berkshire shares, which represent a roughly 13% stake in the conglomerate valued at more than $1 trillion.
He now wants the shares distributed by the end of 2034, rather than 10 years after his death, due to his children’s advanced ages – noting that his oldest child, Susie Buffett, will be 81 by the end of 2034.
WARREN BUFFETT’S FINAL LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS: READ IN FULL HERE
“I reevaluated my whole situation,” Buffett told CNBC. “It’s not just a question of mortality. It’s a question of keeping your marbles.”
After Buffett’s latest donations to the four foundations, he will have given more than $23 billion in Berkshire stock to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation and NoVo Foundation.
Reuters contributed to this report.
