Warren Buffett has permanently stopped donating to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ending a philanthropic partnership that channeled more than $47 billion to global health and development causes since 2006, following revelations about Bill Gates’s association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In his annual mid year announcement, the 95 year old Berkshire Hathaway chairman instead directed approximately $6 billion in Berkshire stock to four family foundations overseen by his children, with no mention of the Gates Foundation that had been the primary beneficiary of his giving pledge for nearly two decades. In March Buffett said that he had not spoken to Gates since the Justice Department released Epstein files in February, and the Wall Street Journal reported that he was awaiting the findings of a WilmerHale review into the foundation’s ties to Epstein before making any decision about resuming donations.
The rupture marks a stunning reversal for one of modern philanthropy’s most celebrated alliances. In his 2006 pledge letter, Buffett called the Gates Foundation “the best vehicle I have found for the funds I have committed to giving away” and directed that his donations be spent immediately to expand its activities. Between 2006 and 2025, he donated more than $47 billion in Berkshire stock to the foundation, with over $17 billion going to his children’s foundations in the same period. The Gates Foundation, which plans to spend down its endowment and close by 2045, said it operates from “a position of financial strength” backed by a $200 billion commitment from Bill Gates and remains grateful for Buffett’s decades of support. But the loss of Buffett’s annual contributions, $4.5 billion in 2025 alone, represents a significant blow to the world’s largest private charitable organization as it accelerates its giving timeline.
The Epstein scandal has inflicted severe reputational damage on Gates, who testified before the House Oversight Committee in June that he met Epstein in 2011 despite knowing of his prior sexual crime conviction, calling it a “grave error in judgment.” In the deposition, released publicly, Gates acknowledged two extramarital affairs with Russian women and said he suspected Epstein “contemplated blackmailing” him after learning of his marital infidelity. Epstein’s draft emails to himself, included in the DOJ files, contained false claims about Gates having sexually transmitted diseases and requesting antibiotics to surreptitiously give his then wife Melinda, allegations Gates denied under oath. He maintained he never witnessed criminal conduct by Epstein, never visited his island or ranch, and never spent time with victims, though he conceded he may have been photographed with women who were later revealed to be trafficking victims. Melinda French Gates, who divorced Bill in 2021, has stated that his meetings with Epstein were a factor in their split and that those named in the files “have to answer” for their associations.
The legal and financial implications of Buffett’s withdrawal are still unfolding. Boston College law professor Ray Madoff, who discussed Buffett’s giving in her book “The Second Estate”, noted that while future gift promises are generally not legally binding, Buffett’s 2006 letter explicitly told the foundation it could rely on his pledge to “immediately and permanently expand its activities”, language that could create a claim if the foundation relied on his promise to its detriment. Buffett has said his remaining shares will be donated to the four family foundations by December 31, 2034, and that after his death his children will oversee a charitable trust containing about 99.5% of his remaining wealth. For now, the $6 billion donation is split among the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation (9 million shares), which funds reproductive health, the Sherwood Foundation (1 million shares), supporting Nebraska nonprofits, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation (1 million shares), focused on global hunger and human trafficking, and the NoVo Foundation (1 million shares), which works with marginalized girls and indigenous communities. Whether the Gates Foundation can weather the loss of its most generous donor while navigating the Epstein fallout will test the resilience of an institution that has shaped global public health for a generation.
