92-year-old Warren Buffett Donates $758 Million In Berkshire Shares To Charity

The world¡¯s sixth richest person Warren Buffett, who is the Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has donated its shares valued at more than $758 million to charities, including one named after his late first wife Susan Buffett.

92-year-old Buffett donated 1.5 million Class B shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and 300,000 shares each to the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the NoVo Foundation on Wednesday, according to a filing, as per Bloomberg report. These three foundations are run by his children. Warren Buffett made the donation after converting 1,600 Class A shares into 2.4 million Class B shares.

forbes

As per Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Buffett is the world¡¯s sixth-richest person with a net worth of $110 billion at present. At a time when the fortunes of many billionaires have tumbled this year, Buffett has gained $1.5 billion this year to date. And it's noteworthy that his wealth would have been considerably higher was it not for his charitable donations.

In the rich list, Buffett is ranked below Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, Gautam Adani, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

Buffett's Pledge To Donate 99% Of Wealth

In 2010, Warren Buffett started the Giving Pledge organization, with his friends Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, saying he would donate 99% of his fortune, either in his lifetime or at his death. He, along with Bill and Melinda Gates had asked hundreds of rich Americans to pledge at least 50% of their wealth to charity. Earlier in 2006, Buffett had already made a commitment to gradually give all of my Berkshire Hathaway stock to philanthropic foundations.

Buffett has till now given more than $32 billion worth of Berkshire stock reportedly to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and has donated regularly to his family members¡¯ foundations.

Also Read: Last Charity Lunch With Warren Buffett Fetches $19 Million

Other Billionaires Donating Their Fortunes

As recently as last week, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pledged to donate the majority of his $124 billion fortune during his lifetime, following which he has already donated $123 million to organisations working for homeless people in the US this week.

shutterstock

Earlier this year, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates had vowed to donate his entire fortune and drop off from the rich list. In July 2022, he tweeted "As I look to the future, I plan to give virtually all of my wealth to the foundation. I will move down and eventually off of the list of the world¡¯s richest people." However, as per BBC, Bill Gates had first pledged to give away his wealth in the year 2010 but his net worth has risen considerably since then.

forbes

Another person who had pledged to donate his wealth earlier this year is ¡®crypto Robinhood¡¯ Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. He had said that he¡¯ll keep enough money to maintain a comfortable life: 1% of his earnings or, at minimum, $100,000 a year. Other than that, he still plans to give it all away every dollar, or Bitcoin, as the case may be.

Bloomberg

While the world¡¯s richest person Elon Musk--who has been busy revamping Twitter--has not spoken about donating his entire wealth, Musk had reportedly donated roughly $5.7 billion worth of Tesla's shares to a charity earlier this year in February.

businessinsider

The donation of 5,044,000 shares was revealed in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Tesla shares were gifted last year between November 19 and November 29 2021, according to the filing. But the name of the recipient(s) of the shares was not disclosed.

For more of such interesting and latest financial news, keep reading Indiatimes Worth. Click here