BUFFETT ACCELERATES DONATIONS

SETS GOAL TO 'DISPOSE OF ALL' HIS SHARES IN EIGHT YEARS

GIVES $6B TO FOUR FAMILY FOUNDATIONS

GATES FOUNDATION CUT OFF

BUFFETT ON CNBC'S 'SQUAWK' WEDNESDAY MORNING

Warren Buffett is speeding up the pace of his annual donations of Berkshire Hathaway shares to four family foundations, giving them a total of almost $6 billion now.

In a news release this morning, Buffett says, "My goal is to dispose of all of my Berkshire shares within about eight years."

CNBC's Becky Quick is sitting down with Buffett in Omaha and we will bring you that interview starting at 6 am ET tomorrow (Wednesday) on "Squawk Box."

Buffett, who will be celebrating his 96th birthday next month, now owns stock in the company with a market value of more than $140 billion.

Even without taking into account potential increases in Berkshire's stock price, that implies gifts of at least $17 billion each year, more than double the $7 billion in stock he donated last year.

In the release, Buffett says, "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."

That excludes the Gates Foundation from any further donations, ending what Buffett said in 2006 would be a "lifetime pledge" of annual gifts to the charity established by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his then-wife, Melinda Gates.

Based on the schedule he set out at that time in which the number of shares decreased by 5% each year, he was due to donate almost $4.5 billion to the Gates Foundation this month.

Warren Buffett Watch Graph
SQUAWK BOX VIDEO: Warren Buffett excludes Gates Foundation from his annual donations of Berkshire stock

Last year around this time, Buffett gave the four family foundations around $1.4 billion in gifts, so it appears this year they are also getting the donation originally earmarked for the Gates group.

In this round, Buffett is giving the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his late first wife, 9 million Class B shares with a current value of around $4.5 billion.

The three foundations run by his children, Susie Buffett's Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and Peter Buffett's NoVo Foundation, will each get 1 million Class B shares worth just under $500 million.

The release does not say whether he will also be making gifts to the family foundations at Thanksgiving as he has done in the last four years, but it seems likely given his new eight-year goal.

Last year those contributions totaled around $1.3 billion.

Warren Buffett Watch Graph
Warren Buffett poses with Bill and Melinda Gates after a 2006 news conference in New York in which Buffett announced large annual donations to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported Buffett was holding back his scheduled donation to the Gates Foundation pending a law firm's review of the charity's ties to Jeffrey Epstein, with the results expected this summer.

In 2006, Buffett said he was "irrevocably committing to make annual gifts of Berkshire Hathaway 'B' shares throughout my lifetime" for the Gates Foundation's benefit as long as either Bill or Melinda Gates "remain alive and active in [its] policy-setting and administration."

But cracks in what had been a strong personal friendship with Bill Gates began to appear in 2021, when Buffett resigned as a foundation trustee two months after Bill and Melinda announced they had decided to end their 27-year marriage.

In 2024, Buffett told the Journal, "The Gates Foundation has no money coming after my death," following a revision of his will that made his three children the trustees of a charitable trust that will hold "99%-plus" of his wealth.

This year, revelations in the Jeffrey Epstein files about the notorious pedophile's connections to Gates put even more strain on Buffett's relationship with Microsoft's co-founder.

In March, Buffett told CNBC he has not talked to Gates "at all since the whole thing was unveiled" and "until it gets cleared up ... I just don't think it makes sense to do a lot of talking."

Asked whether we will continue to give money to the Gates Foundation, Buffett replied, "I'll wait and see what unfolds ... I don't have to make that decision today. And I haven't made it today."

"I've learned things I didn't know about something for all these years."

Warren Buffett Watch Graph
Over the last two decades, Buffett's Gates Foundation gifts have totaled almost $48 billion, based on the value of the shares when they were donated.

The current value of the almost 321 million shares donated to the charity is around $159 billion.

It has sold the vast majority of them over the years to help fund its operations.

 

 
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS

Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@cnbc.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)

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Also, Buffett's annual letters to shareholders are highly recommended reading. There are collected here on Berkshire's website.

-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch