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Billionaire Warren Buffett announced that he’ll be giving away an additional $6 billion of his company’s stock to five different charities, one of which is run by Bill Gates.
Buffett, still worth $152 billion, is donating upwards of 12 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Gates Foundation and four other foundations controlled by his wife and three children.
This marks his biggest charitable contribution since 2006, when he pledged he’d give away the bulk of his fortune before he died.
The 94-year-old investor is giving 9.43 million Berkshire Hathaway shares to the Gates Foundation.
Another 943,384 shares are being directed to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the organization named for his wife, who died in 2004.
Finally, another 660,366 shares will sent to each of the three charities led respectively by his children Howard, Susie, and Peter: the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, Sherwood Foundation and NoVo Foundation.
The donations will be officially made on Monday.
Billionaire Warren Buffett announced that he’ll be giving away an additional $6 billion of his company’s stock to five different charities
The Gates Foundation, which is led by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, received the vast majority of the Berkshire Hathaway shares
Buffett converted 8,239 class A shares – each worth a staggering $730,000 – into 12,358,500 class B shares.
A shares are original stock in Berkshire Hathaway and have high voting power, whereas B shares were created in 1996 primarily so retail investors could own shares of the company.
The vast majority of the newly created class B shares – worth about $485 apiece – were donated to the five foundations Buffett has been consistently donating to for decades.
Despite just giving away billions of dollars, Buffett will retain control over the company because he owns just under 40 percent of the class A shares.
Overall, he owns 13.8 percent of Berkshire’s stock, making him the world’s fifth richest person, according to Forbes.
Buffett and Bill Gates founded the Giving Pledge in 2010 and have led the charge in trying to convince wealthy people around the world to sign on and give away the majority of their fortunes to benefit the world.
When Buffett first started making donations in 2006, his Berkshire stock represented 98 percent of his net worth. And over the last 19 years, he has not bought or sold any shares in the company.
‘The five foundations have received Berkshire B shares that had a value when received of about $60 billion, substantially more than my entire net worth in 2006,’ Buffett said in a statement.
A significant portion of his charitable donations also went to foundations run by his children (Peter Buffett and Susie Buffett are pictured with their father in January 2017)
The foundation run by Howard G. Buffett (pictured right) was also a large recipient of donated stock from his father Warren
‘I have no debts and my remaining A shares are worth about $145 billion, well over 99 percent of my net worth,’ he added.
Buffett also reflected on his company’s long and sustained success since he gained control of it in the 1960s.
‘Nothing extraordinary has occurred at Berkshire; a very long runway, simple and generally sound decisions, the American tailwind and compounding effects produced my current wealth,’ he said.
‘My will provides that about 99½ percent of my estate is destined for philanthropic usage.’
