Warren Buffett gave away $4 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock Tuesday as part of his annual donation to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four other philanthropies, the company said.
Buffett, the longtime CEO of Berkshire Hathaway has been making the annual contributions since 2006 and has given away a total of $45 billion in Berkshire stock, or more than half his stake in the conglomerate.
Buffett, 91, now holds 229,016 Class A shares and 278 Class B shares worth $95 billion. Berkshire's Class A stock finished Tuesday at $415,500, down 1.9% on the session. The Class B stock was off 1.4% to $277.64.
Buffett now owns a roughly 16% stake in Berkshire and his voting interest is about double that.
Buffett converted 9,608 Berkshire Class A shares into 14.4 million Class B shares and then made the donations Tuesday. The conversion reflects Buffett's desire to limit the number of supervoting Class A shares in the public float, which bolsters his control of the company.
When Buffett made the initial donation in 2006, he said he planned to give away 99% of its net worth and all of his Berkshire stock, then about 475,000 Class A shares, to philanthropy.
Buffett offered some thoughts on his approach to philanthropy when he made the donation in 2021.
"Dynastic behavior is less the norm here than in most countries and its appeal will likely diminish. After much observation of super-wealthy families, here's my recommendation: Leave the children enough so that they can do anything but not enough that they can do nothing," he wrote.
Buffett wants the philanthropies to be able to quickly use the money for their needs.