After donating more than $39 billion over 15 years, Warren Buffett has warned that his support for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will end with him.
A Interview with Wall Street Journal, The 93-year-old philanthropist said his will did not anticipate any more overt charitable pledges to the organization after his passing. There is no definite indication one way or the other as to what will happen to his fortune if he is gone.
“The Gates Foundation has no money after my death,” Buffett said of Charlie Munger, a longtime business partner at Berkshire Hathaway who died late last year at age 99.
Buffett explained that until then, his remaining assets—currently worth about $127 billion—will be bequeathed to a trust overseen by his three children, Howard, Susie and Peter.
While that doesn’t preclude future donations to the Gates Foundation, Buffett said he will have to decide unanimously how his billions will be spent once he’s gone.
“I feel very good about the values of my three children,” she said Newspaper, “I have 100% confidence in how they will do things.”
Buffett’s will is the first to become public after his death drew up a plan In November he named the trio as executors and trustees of what would become of his fortune.
“They weren’t fully prepared for this awesome responsibility in 2006, but they are now,” he said.
Speaking to the newspaper, his daughter and two sons have yet to make concrete plans on how to spend the money, not only because it depends on tax laws and community development, but also because it is premature.
“I can imagine it being a continuation of what we’ve been doing,” Susie Buffett said.
Gates did not respond to the foundation’s request for comment Good luck For a statement.
The latest second blow to the Gates Foundation
Run by CEO Mark Sussman, the charity has awarded nearly $78 billion in grants since its founding. Among its causes—it claims to be fighting poverty worldwide and eradicating malaria. 600,000 lives Every year.
One of the foundation’s most generous supporters, Buffett has made donations since joining as a trustee in 2006. Buffett stepped down in 2021, the same year Melinda French Gates announced her divorce from the Microsoft co-founder.
On Friday, Berkshire Hathaway said in a statement that the Omaha native donation An additional 9.9 million shares of its Class B stock, valued at a total of $4 billion, became available to the trust immediately.
The news is the second blow to Susman and the foundation since Melinda French Gates resigned in May to devote herself to the fight against the rollback of women’s rights in the United States and around the world.
“Warren Buffett has been very generous to the Gates Foundation through more than 18 years of contributions and advice,” Sussman said. magazine. “He played an invaluable role in developing and shaping the Foundation’s mission to create a world where every person can live a healthy, productive life.”
