After donating more than $39 billion over 15 years, Warren Buffett has warned that his support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation may end with him.
in interview With the Wall Street Journal The 93-year-old philanthropist said his will includes no more explicit pledges to the organization’s charitable work once he is gone. So far there has been no concrete indication one way or the other as to what might happen to his fortune in the event of his death.
“The Gates Foundation will not receive any money after my death,” said Buffett, whose longtime Berkshire Hathaway business partner Charlie Munger died at age 99 late last year.
Buffett explained that all of his remaining fortune – currently worth about $127 billion – that he has not given away until then will be inherited to a charitable fund overseen by his three children: Howard, Susie, and Peter.
While this in itself does not preclude the possibility of future donations to the Gates Foundation, Buffett said they will have to unanimously decide how his billions will be spent after he is gone.
“I feel very comfortable with the values of my three children,” he said magazine, “I have 100% confidence in the way they will do things.”
Buffett, whose will will be made public after his death, first I drew a plan To find out what would happen to his fortune in November, the three were appointed as executors and trustees.
“They were not fully prepared for this enormous responsibility in 2006, but they are now,” he said at the time.
Speaking to the newspaper, his daughter and two sons said they had not yet made concrete plans for how to spend the money, not only because it depends on tax laws and developments in society, but also because it is premature.
“I can imagine it’s probably a continuation of what we’ve been doing,” Susie Buffett said.
The Gates Foundation did not respond to a request from luck To get a statement.
The second final blow to the Gates Foundation
The charity, run by CEO Mark Suzman, has distributed grants totaling about $78 billion since its founding. Its causes include fighting global poverty and eliminating malaria, a disease that Over 600,000 lives every year.
Buffett is one of the foundation’s most generous supporters, having made donations since 2006, when he joined it as a trustee. Buffett stepped down in 2021, the same year Melinda French Gates announced her intention to divorce the Microsoft co-founder.
Berkshire Hathaway said in a statement Friday that the Omaha native will take the position. Donates Another 9.9 million shares of Class B stock for a total value of $4 billion to the Corporation effective immediately.
The news is the latest blow to Suzman and the foundation, after Melinda French Gates resigned in May to devote herself to fighting the rollback of women’s rights in the United States and around the world.
“Warren Buffett has been extremely generous to the Gates Foundation over the past 18 years of contributions and advice,” Suzman said. magazine. “He has played an invaluable role in supporting and shaping the Foundation’s work to create a world where every person can live a healthy, productive life.”
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