Warren Buffett has ended his philanthropic partnership with the Gates Foundation after 19 years and $48 billion（約7.7兆円） in donations, announcing Tuesday that all his charitable giving this year—12 million shares worth just under $6 billion（約9600億円）—will go to family-run foundations instead.
The split breaks a 2006 "irrevocable" pledge and reflects deepening strain over Bill Gates' meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, as well as fallout from Gates' 2021 divorce; Buffett said he is waiting to see findings from a law firm review of the foundation's Epstein ties before committing further funds.
What happened
Warren Buffett announced Tuesday he is donating 12 million Class B Berkshire shares (worth just under $6 billion（約9600億円）) this year entirely to family foundations—the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation, NoVo Foundation, and Sherwood Foundation—with zero going to the Gates Foundation for the first time in 19 years. He pledged his remaining $140 billion（約22兆円） in Berkshire shares will be distributed to these family organizations by December 31, 2034.
Why it matters
The split breaks an "irrevocable" lifetime pledge Buffett made to the Gates Foundation in 2006 and ends nearly two decades of bulk philanthropic partnership. The rupture stems from Bill Gates' divorce from Melinda French Gates in 2021, Buffett's 2021 resignation from the foundation's trustee board, and most significantly Gates' acknowledged meetings with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein—which Buffett said last month prompted him to pause donations pending a law firm review expected to release findings this summer.
What to watch
Last year Buffett donated 9.4 million shares worth $4.6 billion（約7400億円） to the Gates Foundation; this year he gives zero. Buffett said in a March CNBC interview he and Gates "haven't talked at all since the whole thing was unveiled" and he does not want to commit further funds until he sees what unfolds with the Epstein investigation.
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The collapse of the Buffett–Gates philanthropic partnership marks a historic reversal of one of modern philanthropy's flagship collaborations. The two billionaires first met at Gates' parents' home in 1991 and later co-founded the Giving Pledge, cementing what appeared to be a lasting alignment. Buffett's 2006 "irrevocable" pledge to donate as long as either Bill or Melinda Gates remained actively involved codified that commitment. Yet the partnership has unraveled over just three years, beginning with Gates' divorce announcement in 2021—the same year Buffett stepped down as a trustee—and accelerating over Gates' documented meetings with Jeffrey Epstein. Although Gates has not been accused of participating in Epstein's illegal conduct, the revelation that Epstein spent a decade cultivating connections to Gates and the foundation prompted Buffett to halt his midyear donations pending a law firm investigation due this summer. Buffett's March 2024 comment that "there was a lot I didn't know" signaled deeper reservations than the amicable framing of his 2021 trustee resignation suggested. The 95-year-old investor's pivot to family foundations—channeling $6 billion（約9600億円） this year to organizations run by his three children and his late wife's namesake foundation—is not merely a charitable reallocation but a public and symbolic severing of a relationship he once deemed irreversible.
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