Warren Buffett's will once named the Gates Foundation; he removed it in 2024 and stopped his lifetime gifts to it in 2026

Warren Buffett began giving away his Berkshire Hathaway shares under a 2006 pledge. The Gates Foundation was his largest recipient and was once named in his will. He resigned as a Gates Foundation trustee in 2021 during Bill and Melinda Gates's divorce. On 28 June 2024 he told The Wall Street Journal, "The Gates Foundation has no money coming after my death." About 99 percent of his Berkshire stake, then about $130 billion, would go after his death to a new charitable trust run by his three children, Susie, Howard and Peter, who must act unanimously. On 10 November 2025 he converted 1,800 Class A shares into 2.7 million Class B shares and gave them to four family foundations. His children were then 72, 70 and 67. He wrote that they were "at their prime" but "have yet to enter old age." Greg Abel was set to become Berkshire's chief executive at the start of 2026. On 14 July 2026 Buffett, 95, converted 8,000 Class A shares and gave 12 million Class B shares, about $6 billion, to the four family foundations. The Gates Foundation was not on the list. His statement did not mention it; bdnews24 linked the change to reporting on Bill Gates's contacts with Jeffrey Epstein. Buffett said his remaining shares "will be donated to the four foundations one way or the other by December 31, 2034." The Motley Fool counted 188,290 Class A shares still in his name.