For almost twenty years, Warren Buffett took advantage of the summer break to convert part of his Berkshire Hathaway shares and donate them for philanthropic purposes. For much of those two decades of giving, the Gates Foundation had been the main recipient of the billions distributed by the veteran investor. However, last year something changed and the 2026 cast confirms it: Warren Buffett no longer trusts the foundation of his former friend Bill Gates.
Like every year, the “Oracle of Omaha” has made his annual donation and, for the second consecutive year, the Foundation of his old friend Bill Gates has been left without a single dollar. The reason has a first and last name: Jeffrey Epstein.
A promise for life. In 2006, Buffett signed a commitment that he himself described as irrevocable. In your original letter To Bill and Melinda Gates, the millionaire investor promised to donate shares with several conditions. As Pulitzer-nominated journalist Tim Schwab relates in his book ‘The Bill Gates problem‘those conditions were:
- The funds had to be spent within the year they were received, discounting the 5% of assets that foundations must donate by law.
- Bill, Melinda or someone from the Gates family he had to remain active at the head of the foundation.
- The donations had to be counted as charitable contributions, which for tax purposes taxed differently to gifts and donations.
Those conditions made Buffett the foundation’s largest individual donor. According to the official statement of Berkshire Hathaway, this year has converted 8,000 Class A shares into 12 million Class B shares, but with a totally different destination than usual.
Epstein changed everything. The first cracks in the relationship between Gates and Buffett began with the Bill and Melinda divorce in 2021. The veteran Omaha investor was very close to Melinda’s values and her management skills. Those cracks soon they became a breakup when the Department of Justice declassified documents that revived doubts about the Gates contacts with Jeffrey Epstein, the financier convicted of sexual crimes.
In their statements to Congressadmitted that meeting with Epstein put his reputation and job at risk. Buffett, for his part, described that relationship as “unpleasant” in an interview with CNBCalthough he clarified that he has also made a mistake when choosing friends.
His children take over from Gates. Buffett insists the decision is not just about Epstein. According to what he told Reutershis three children Susie, Howard and Peter already they have instructions to manage the distribution of his fortune.
This year the distribution has gone to four family foundations. The bulk, 9 million shares, went to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, in honor of his late wife. The rest has been divided between the Sherwood Foundation, which Susie runs, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which her middle son runs, and the NoVo Foundation, run by her youngest son, Peter.
Goal: spend $140 billion by 2034. The most striking thing about the distribution of donations this year has not only been the confirmation of the break with the Gates Foundation. Warren Buffett has advanced the schedule to divest his entire stake in Berkshire Hathaway, some $140 billion.
In previous communicationsthe millionaire claimed to have planned to distribute it ten years after his death. According to your own releasenow “My goal is to dispose of all of my Berkshire shares within approximately eight years… I am hopeful that all three of them will be able to complete the distribution of my shares by December 31, 2034.”
Buffett himself acknowledged that “Of course, mortality is unpredictable, but my remaining shares will be donated to all four foundations in one form or another by December 31, 2034.” His children will gradually sell his remaining shares, some 188,290 Class A shares, until they exhaust a fortune that for almost twenty years was linked to the projects of the Gates Foundation.
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