OMAHA – Twenty years after declaring his gift to the Gates Foundation “irrevocable,” Warren Buffett on Tuesday excluded it from his annual donation of Berkshire Hathaway shares, ending a philanthropic partnership that had channeled billions into the world’s largest private charitable organization since 2006.
Buffett transferred 12 million Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), worth roughly $6 billion at current prices, to four foundations managed by his children. The Gates Foundation – which had received a portion of Buffett’s Berkshire shares every year since the original pledge – received nothing.
CNBC, which first reported the development, said Tuesday’s omission marks the first time since 2006 that Buffett has excluded the Gates Foundation from his annual mid-year distribution.
The reason sits in the public record. Bill Gates maintained documented relationships with Jeffrey Epstein for years after Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea in Florida to charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor. The scope of those contacts – including visits to Epstein properties and correspondence extending well past the conviction – became the subject of reporting and court proceedings throughout 2025 and 2026. The Gates Foundation initiated an internal review.
Buffett made his position visible in March, in a CNBC interview with Becky Quick. “I have not spoken with Gates at all since the whole thing was unveiled,” he said. “Until it gets cleared up … I just don’t think it makes sense to do a lot of talking.”
On Tuesday, those words became action.
The 2006 commitment letter Buffett sent to Bill and Melinda Gates used the word “irrevocable” to describe his pledge to donate Berkshire shares annually, conditioned only on either Bill or Melinda remaining actively involved in the organization. Melinda French Gates resigned from the foundation in May 2024, accepting a $12.5 billion settlement. Bill Gates remained active. For nearly two decades, the commitment held.
What changed in 2025 and 2026 was the scale of documentation. The same Epstein file releases that stripped Lawrence Summers of every institutional role he held produced records broader than prior disclosures – court filings detailing Gates’s contacts with Epstein in terms more granular than earlier reporting. The Gates Foundation’s internal review has produced no public conclusions.
The four foundations receiving Tuesday’s shares – those of Susan Buffett, Howard G. Buffett, and Peter Buffett, plus a fourth family vehicle – have all received Buffett gifts before. The shift in allocation is not unprecedented. The absence of Gates is.
The Gates Foundation manages more than $70 billion in assets. It funds global health initiatives including malaria and polio eradication programs, agricultural development across sub-Saharan Africa, and education programs in the United States. Berkshire shares have been a meaningful driver of endowment growth for two decades. One missed year, at this scale, can be absorbed. A sustained absence would eventually require the foundation to identify alternative sources.
Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares closed near $500 on Monday. The 12 million shares distributed Tuesday are worth approximately $6 billion. That figure covers only Buffett’s midyear distribution; he typically makes additional gifts later in the year, and Tuesday’s announcement does not address those.
Buffett has issued no statement directly addressing the Gates Foundation. He offered no condition that, if met, would restore the donations. The 2006 “irrevocable” commitment is now, functionally, revoked – though Buffett has not said so in those words.
That is consistent with his practice. Buffett rarely announces what he is not doing. His annual donation disclosures list where shares went. This year’s list is shorter by one name that appeared on it every year since 2006.
The Epstein file releases that have accumulated since 2025 have forced similar reckonings across other institutions. The mechanism in each case is roughly the same: documentation replaces allegation, and institutional partners respond to documentation. Buffett’s response is both the most financially significant and the most characteristically restrained – no statement condemning Gates, no announcement of a public break, just 12 million shares moved from one column to four others.
The Gates Foundation declined to comment, according to published reports.
