By Jonathan Stempel
July 14 (Reuters) – Warren Buffett has stopped donating to the Gates Foundation, ending a two-decade philanthropic partnership following revelations about interactions between Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Buffett said on Tuesday he is donating about $6 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock, comprising 12 million Class B shares, in his annual mid-year donation to four family foundations overseen by his daughter Susie and sons Howard and Peter.
The announcement by the 95-year-old Berkshire chairman did not mention the Gates Foundation, which has received more than $47 billion of the conglomerate’s stock since Buffett said in a 2006 letter he was “irrevocably committing” to donate shares throughout his life. Buffett donated more than $17 billion of stock to the four family foundations in the same period.
“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,” Buffett said in a statement.
Gates, 70, has seen his reputation tarnished following the U.S. Department of Justice’s release of files about Epstein in February. He has not been accused of crimes.
GATES FOUNDATION GRATEFUL TO BUFFETT
Buffett and Gates had been longtime friends, and were often seen together at Berkshire’s annual shareholder weekends in Omaha, Nebraska.
But in March, Buffett told CNBC they had not spoken since the Epstein files were released.
Buffett’s 2025 donations totaled more than $4.5 billion to the Gates Foundation and about $2.8 billion to the family foundations.
“The Gates Foundation is grateful to Warren Buffett for his decades of support for our work,” the foundation said in a statement.
It also said it operates from a “position of financial strength,” supported by a $200 billion commitment from Bill Gates, to advance its work until its planned sunset in 2045.
Berkshire did not respond to requests for additional comment.
In his 2006 letter, Buffett directed the Gates Foundation to spend his donations, and said it could rely on his pledge to “immediately and permanently expand its activities.”
Ray Madoff, a Boston College law professor who discussed Buffett’s giving in her book “The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy,” said it was unclear if Buffett was legally bound to his pledge.
“A promise to make a gift in the future is not legally binding unless you get consideration,” she said. “The one thing that makes Buffett’s letter different is him saying, you can rely on my gift to expand operations. That could create a claim for the Gates Foundation, if it relied on Buffett’s promise to its detriment.”
Buffett has said that after his death, his children would oversee a charitable trust containing about 99.5% of his remaining wealth.
GATES REGRETS EPSTEIN TIES
The Justice Department’s Epstein files included photos of Gates posing with the financier and with women whose faces were redacted. Emails showed communications between Epstein and the foundation’s staff.
Epstein died in a Manhattan jail in August 2019, one month after being arrested on sex trafficking charges. New York City’s medical examiner called the death a suicide.
Last month, Gates told Congress he was introduced to Epstein in 2011, three years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting a minor for prostitution, and four years after Epstein reached a controversial non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors.
Gates said subsequent meetings with Epstein focused on possible philanthropy but proved fruitless, and the relationship ended by December 2014.
He said he later discovered that Epstein learned of his marital infidelity, and Epstein tried using that knowledge to unsuccessfully blackmail him into reengaging.
Gates has repeatedly expressed regret for having anything to do with Epstein, has denied spending time with victims of Epstein’s sexual abuse, and has said he never witnessed criminal conduct by Epstein.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Buffett was awaiting law firm WilmerHale’s review of the Gates Foundation’s ties with Epstein before deciding whether to continue his donations. WilmerHale did not comment.
DONATIONS TO FAMILY CHARITIES
Buffett has donated well over half his Berkshire stock since he began giving away his fortune.
He owned close to 14% of Berkshire’s stock before the latest donations, and was worth $147 billion according to Forbes magazine.
The latest donations include 9 million Class B shares of Berkshire to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation; and 1 million shares to each of the Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation and NoVo Foundation.
Susie Buffett leads the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which funds reproductive health. It is named for her mother, who was Warren Buffett’s first wife.
The Sherwood Foundation supports Nebraska nonprofits and early childhood education. The Howard G. Buffett Foundation focuses on global hunger, combating human trafficking and mitigating conflicts. The NoVo Foundation has initiatives focused on marginalized girls and women, and on indigenous communities.
In 2020, Gates stepped down from Berkshire’s board of directors after 16 years. Buffett stepped down as a Gates Foundation trustee in 2021, soon after Bill and Melinda French Gates announced divorce plans, and in 2024 he said his donations would end when he dies.
Berkshire is a $1.07 trillion conglomerate that owns Geico car insurance, the BNSF railroad, Dairy Queen, Fruit of the Loom, and stocks including Apple, American Express and Google parent Alphabet.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Chizu Nomiyama, Louise Heavens and David Gaffen)
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