Why Did Warren Buffett Skip Gates Foundation Donation After Two Decades?

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett left the Gates Foundation out of his annual charitable giving this year, breaking a two decade philanthropic partnership following disclosures about Bill Gates ' interactions with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein . The 95 year old Berkshire Hathaway chairman announced Tuesday from Omaha, Nebraska, that he would instead direct roughly $6 billion in company stock entirely to four foundations run by his own children.

Buffett's statement made no mention of the Gates Foundation, which has received more than $47 billion in Berkshire shares since he first committed to the giving pledge in 2006. The donation announced Tuesday, comprising thousands of Class B shares, went to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the Novo Foundation, matching roughly what he gave to charity last summer.

Buffett said he wants his remaining Berkshire stock, worth more than $140 billion , fully distributed to those four family foundations by the end of 2034 , moving up an earlier plan that would have let his children handle distribution after his death. He added that he was relieved Epstein never set foot in Omaha, where he has lived for more than sixty years.

The Gates Foundation thanked Buffett for his decades of support in a statement, noting his gifts have helped it expand global health and opportunity programs, and said it remains financially stable as Gates has pledged to give away 99 percent of his fortune before the foundation closes in 2045. Gates has denied any knowledge of Epstein's crimes and said he only met with him hoping to raise charitable funds; his ex wife Melinda French Gates stepped down as the foundation's co chair in 2024 after their divorce, which followed revelations about his ties to Epstein.