Warren Buffet has set himself a deadline, and a tight one. The Berkshire Hathaway chairman, who turns 96 next month, said on Tuesday that he intends to give away his entire stake in the company, worth more than $140B (£105B), by the end of 2034. Until now, the arrangement had been for his three children to hand out whatever was left within a decade of his death.
'My goal is to dispose of all of my Berkshire shares within about eight years,' Buffett said in a statement released by the company. His children, he added, are 'unfortunately growing older', and he wants the task finished on a fixed schedule rather than left to his estate.
The Maths Behind Buffett's $17B-a-Year Plan
The arithmetic is steep. Clearing a $140B (£105B) holding within eight years works out at gifts of at least $17B (£12.8B) a year, even if the stock does not climb. That is more than double the roughly $7B (£5.3B) in shares he gave away last year.
He began at once. To fund this round, Buffett converted 8,000 Class A shares into 12 million Class B shares, worth about $6B (£4.5B), then split them among four family foundations. The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named after his late first wife, took 9 million shares valued at around $4.5B (£3.4B). The Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and the NoVo Foundation, each run by one of his three children, received 1 million shares apiece, worth just under $500M (£375M) each. The gifts leave him holding 188,290 Class A shares and 1,162 Class B shares.
The three children's charities pull in different directions: Nebraska nonprofits and early childhood work at Sherwood, global hunger and anti-trafficking efforts at the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and support for marginalised women and girls at NoVo. Buffett said he wanted the annual grants to grow over time, with the payment to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation rising 'at a somewhat greater rate' than the others.
Why Buffett Held Back His Gates Foundation Gift
One long-standing recipient was absent. For the first time since 2006, Buffett gave nothing to the Gates Foundation, and his plan for the remaining shares names only the four family foundations. The charity had received the bulk of his giving for nearly two decades. By its own count, his past gifts total more than $47B (£35B), part of almost $60B (£45B) he has handed to philanthropy since 2006.
He has not shut the door for good. Buffett held back the customary gift while a law firm reviews the foundation's ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying he would wait for the outcome. In a March interview with CNBC, he said he had not spoken to Bill Gates 'at all since the whole thing was unveiled,' adding that until the matter was resolved he did not think it made sense 'to do a lot of talking.'
The strain runs back further. Buffett stepped down as a foundation trustee in 2021, the year Gates and his former wife, Melinda French Gates, announced the end of their 27-year marriage. The two men had once been close enough to launch the Giving Pledge together in 2010, urging the world's billionaires to give away most of their wealth. By 2024, Buffett had said the foundation would receive nothing from his estate, and he rewrote his will to place more than 99% of his fortune in a charitable trust overseen by his children.
The Gates Foundation, in a statement, thanked Buffett for his decades of support, said his contributions had advanced its work on global health, and noted it would carry on through 2045 with the backing of Bill Gates's own $200B (£150B) pledge.
Buffett, worth about $147B (£110B) and ranked by Forbes among the world's 10 richest people, has long promised to give away more than 99% of his money. He keeps control of the roughly $1.07T (£803B) conglomerate, whose businesses run from Geico car insurance and the BNSF railway to Dairy Queen, by holding on to his Class A shares and their voting power while donating the more easily transferred B shares.
He handed the chief executive role to Greg Abel at the start of 2026 after six decades in charge, and remains chairman and Berkshire's largest shareholder. By naming a fixed date of 31 December 2034, he has set out to complete the giveaway within his own lifetime rather than leave it to his estate.
