Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have described their decades-long bond as "incredibly wonderful," yet their charitable paths have now diverged.
At a bridge tournament in Omaha in 2000, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates played cards at the same table, surrounded by a crowd of onlookers.
Key Points
Warren Buffett has not made a donation this year to the Gates Foundation, ending a two-decade-long tradition of annually gifting shares of Berkshire Hathaway (ASX: BRK.B) to the charity.
Decades ago, the world's two wealthiest individuals, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, jointly pledged to give away the vast majority of their fortunes, making global headlines. Over the years, the pair have donated hundreds of billions of dollars combined and still plan to give away tens of billions more.
They are simply no longer doing it together.
Buffett's decision not to donate to the Gates Foundation this year concludes a twenty-year streak of annual gifts of Berkshire Hathaway stock to the organization. The 95-year-old investor is instead directing his wealth to four Buffett family foundations, stating that all of his Berkshire shares, currently valued at approximately $140 billion, will be donated to these entities by the end of 2034.
Buffett clarified that halting donations to the Gates Foundation is not due to a deterioration in his relationship with Gates, nor is it related to reports about Gates's past association with Jeffrey Epstein. On Wednesday, he stated, "My friendship with Bill has always been incredibly wonderful."
"I've been wrong about people... That's life. Nobody gets it 100% right," he added, noting that Gates recently visited him in Omaha to discuss the donations, and their rapport remains strong.
A report last month indicated that Buffett paused his regular mid-year donation to the Gates Foundation while awaiting the findings of a review concerning the foundation's links to Epstein. Gates has committed the bulk of his Microsoft (ASX: MSFT) wealth to the Gates Foundation, which he has announced will cease operations in 2045.
The Gates Foundation issued a statement expressing profound gratitude for Buffett's cumulative donations exceeding $47 billion, stating, "Thanks to Bill's commitment of $200 billion, the foundation is financially strong and able to sustain its work until 2045."
This development marks a new chapter in the multi-decade friendship between the two titans of wealth. Buffett and Gates have been close for years and, alongside Melinda French Gates, co-founded the Giving Pledge, which encourages the world's wealthiest to donate the majority of their fortunes.
Timeline of a Key Friendship
July 1991: The two men first meet. Gates's mother invited her son to a gathering with friends at the Gates family's vacation home on Hood Canal in Washington State. Gates wrote on his blog in 2016, "We hit it off immediately in our first conversation."
In 2003, Buffett attended a Microsoft executive summit alongside Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and other corporate leaders.
January 2000: Gates and his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The software magnate has acknowledged that Buffett's views against dynastic wealth deeply influenced him.
December 2004: Gates was elected to the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway.
June 2006: Buffett announced his permanent commitment to annually donate Berkshire stock to the Gates Foundation. That same year, he also became a trustee of the foundation.
June 2010: The Giving Pledge was formally launched to encourage billionaires to donate most of their assets. Buffett, Gates, and Oprah Winfrey later appeared together on the cover of Forbes magazine.
July 2016: Gates released a virtual reality short film and a blog post commemorating 25 years of friendship with Buffett, describing the time as filled with learning and laughter. He wrote, "Warren and I are mostly peers, but he often sees things more clearly and wisely than I do, acting like a father figure to me."
April 2019: The two billionaires visited a Dairy Queen store in Omaha, owned by Berkshire, where they worked the cash register and chatted with customers.
At the 2012 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, Bill Gates played with a giant ping-pong paddle while Buffett looked on.
Inside a candy store, Buffett and Gates held up record covers of Kenny Rogers and Glen Campbell; the scene is from a short film titled "Warren, Thank You for Being a Friend" released by Gates's team.
March 2020: Gates announced he was stepping down from the boards of both Berkshire Hathaway and Microsoft.
May 2021: Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates announced their divorce. The following month, Buffett resigned as a trustee of the Gates Foundation.
June 2024: Buffett indicated that after his death, the Gates Foundation would no longer receive any donations from him.
February 2025: In what would be his final shareholder letter as CEO of Berkshire, Buffett praised Gates's business acumen. He wrote, "Look at my friend Bill Gates. He understood that engaging with dynamic, world-changing new industries is far more meaningful than clinging to an honorary certificate."
May 2025: After Buffett announced he would step down as CEO of Berkshire, Gates praised him in an interview, saying, "Warren is one of a kind. I hope we see more leaders like him in the future."
June 2026: Gates informed lawmakers that his last conversation with Buffett was in January of that year, before the full Epstein-related court documents were made public.
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