OMAHA, Neb. – Warren Buffett said Wednesday that his decision to redirect future charitable giving away from the Gates Foundation was driven less by Bill Gates’ connection to Jeffrey Epstein and more by his confidence that his three children are now prepared to oversee the donation of his vast fortune.
In an interview with CNBC, the 95-year-old Berkshire Hathaway chairman described Gates’ association with Epstein, the convicted sex offender, as “distasteful.” Still, Buffett framed the matter as part of a broader human failing, comparing it to poor judgments he has made over the years in business hires and personal relationships.
“No one bats a thousand in the business of choosing people,” Buffett told the network.
Buffett says he reviewed Gates’ Epstein ties closely
Buffett said he had spent significant time since Jan. 1 studying the details surrounding Gates and Epstein. That included, he said, reading Gates’ sworn statements to Congress as well as the related cross-examination. Buffett also pointed out that Gates ultimately cut off his relationship with Epstein.
According to Buffett, Gates was not caught off guard by the announcement Buffett made Tuesday: that the remainder of his roughly $140 billion in Berkshire Hathaway stock will eventually go to foundations tied to his family and his children, Howard, Susie and Peter. Gates traveled to Omaha several weeks ago for a lengthy private conversation with Buffett, after the two had been in limited contact since new information about Gates and Epstein emerged through federal releases of Epstein investigation files.
Gates has previously said his meetings with Epstein were connected to efforts to raise money for philanthropic work, and that he was unaware of Epstein’s continuing criminal conduct.
Epstein, who faced accusations of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls, was found dead in a Manhattan federal jail in August 2019. New York City’s medical examiner later determined that his death was a suicide.
Buffett said in 2024 that he planned to cut off donations to the Gates Foundation after he died and let his three children decide how to distribute the rest of his fortune.
In other news from the CNBC interview,, Buffett revealed that he recently broke his leg and underwent surgery for it, but he said he is recovering well.
Drastically increasing donations to give away his fortune by 2034
The Gates Foundation didn’t immediately respond after Buffett’s interview on Wednesday, but a day earlier the foundation thanked Buffett for donating more than $47 billion since 2006. The Gates Foundation plans to close in 2045 after distributing the rest of Gates’ fortune.
Buffett said he wants his own money to be distributed even quicker than he has previously indicated: by the end of 2034. To do that, he will have to drastically increase the amount he donates every year, to more than $17 billion annually.
Right now he is giving roughly $6 billion to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and the foundations his children run: the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the Novo Foundation. The majority of that is going to the foundation named in honor of his late wife, which may quickly become one of the world’s largest such organizations. Buffett also traditionally gives additional gifts to his family foundations around Thanksgiving each year.
He has said that after his death, a new foundation will be created to distribute the rest of his shares and that his children will have to agree unanimously on where to donate them. He wants his children to be able to make those decisions before they die and his oldest daughter will be nearly 81 in eight years.
Buffett’s donations may affect his successor’s support
The accelerated pace of Buffett’s plan to give away his fortune over the next eight years rather than doing it over the 10 years following his death will mean that his successor at Berkshire Hathaway, Greg Abel, won’t be able to count on the support of Buffett’s family as the company’s biggest shareholder for as long as he thought.
Nevertheless, Buffett said he believes it’s clear that Abel is the right man to lead the conglomerate he built, and “that becomes more evident by the day.”
However, Buffett did note that Berkshire’s big investment in Google’s parent company, which has grown in value considerably over the past year, is one he initiated and not an investment Abel picked, though Abel did agree on it. Just last month, Berkshire agreed to invest another $10 billion in Alphabet after previously tripling its stake in the company.
