"Life is unpredictable": Buffett has set a deadline for distributing his shares
Legendary investor is accelerating the transfer of assets to charitable organizations
For the first time in 20 years, Buffett did not donate shares to the Bill Gates Foundation / Photo: Press Connect / Shutterstock.com
Billionaire Warren Buffett spent eight years reducing his stake in the investment firm Berkshire Hathaway to zero. He revealed this on July 14 while announcing his latest donation of assets to charity.
"My goal is to sell all of my Berkshire shares over the course of about eight years."
Buffett, who is now 95, began donating his shares in 2006. In 2025, he announced his intention to accelerate the transfer of assets to his children’s trusts to increase the likelihood that they would be able to make use of these donations during their lifetimes.
“My children, unfortunately, are getting older,” Buffett said on July 14. “I very much hope that all three of them will be able to complete the transfer of my shares by December 31, 2034. Of course, life expectancy is unpredictable, but one way or another, my remaining shares will be transferred to four foundations no later than December 31, 2034.”
Buffett announced that, as part of his latest donation, three foundations led by his children will each receive 1 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class B stock. Another 9 million Class B shares will be transferred to a foundation named after his late wife, Susan Thompson Buffett. For the first time in two decades, the billionaire has excluded Bill Gates’ charitable foundation from the list of recipients. This decision was prompted by the release of documents by the U.S. Department of Justice earlier this year, which once again drew attention to Bill Gates’ ties to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of human trafficking and sex crimes.
Context
Until this year, Buffett served as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns dozens of companies, including the insurance company Geico, the battery manufacturer Duracell, and the Dairy Queen restaurant chain. Buffett owns 188,290 Class A shares and 1,162 Class B shares in the company, according to Bloomberg. Forbes estimates the investor’s net worth at $147 billion.
Berkshire shares have fallen 8% from their all-time high, which was reached last May shortly before Buffett announced his resignation as CEO. The S&P 500 index rose 32% over the same period.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
