With $6B donation, Warren Buffett has now given away over $60B: It's ‘substantially more than my entire net worth in 2006'
The 94-year-old said in a press release on June 27, that this total amount — all donated in shares of his company, Berkshire Hathaway — is "substantially more than my entire net worth in 2006."
Indeed, in 2006, Buffett's net worth was roughly $46 billion, according to that year's Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans. At the time, this made him the second-wealthiest person in the U.S., behind Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, whose net worth was then estimated at $53 billion.
As of Wednesday morning, Forbes estimates Buffett's net worth at $145.2 billion, making him the seventh-wealthiest person in the world.
With his latest round of donations, Buffett is continuing to fulfill his 2006 commitment to give away more than 99% of his wealth, as part of the Giving Pledge he launched with longtime friend Bill Gates.
At the time, Buffett pledged to donate roughly 4% of his remaining shares in Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company that currently boasts a market value over $1 trillion. Buffett still owns about 13.8% of Berkshire's shares, Reuters reported on June 27.
Buffett's net worth has continued to climb over the past two decades along with Berkshire's rising market value, though the iconic investor downplayed any strategies that would have helped fuel that growth: "Nothing extraordinary has occurred at Berkshire; a very long runway, simple and generally sound decisions, the American tailwind and compounding effects produced my current wealth," he noted in the press release.
Roughly $1.4 billion of Buffett's latest stock donations are split between four different family-run foundations, including charities led by each of his three children, and one named for his late wife, Susan Thompson Buffett, who died in 2004. The other $4.6 billion gift goes to the Gates Foundation.
While Buffett said he's committed to fulfilling his pledge to donate to these charities annually throughout his lifetime, the billionaire confirmed to The Wall Street Journal in 2024, that his donations to the Gates Foundation will cease upon his death.
The task of dispersing the vast majority of Buffett's wealth after his death will mostly fall to his three children. However, in 2024, Buffett announced that he had updated his will, to add three independent trustees to his charitable trust, to potentially succeed his children.
The move was meant to reduce any uncertainty about how Buffett's wealth will be distributed in the future, he explained in a 2024 letter that spoke out against "dynastic" wealth.
"I've never wished to create a dynasty or pursue any plan that extended beyond the children," Buffett wrote. "I know the three [independent trustees] well and trust them completely. Future generations are another matter. Who can foresee the priorities, intelligence and fidelity of successive generations to deal with the distribution of extraordinary wealth amid what may be a far different philanthropic landscape?"
In the same letter, he suggested that all parents make sure that their children "read your will before you sign it," in order to understand "both the logic for your decisions and the responsibilities they will encounter upon your death," Buffett wrote.
"You don't want your children asking 'Why?' in respect to testamentary decisions," he added, "when you are no longer able to respond."
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Newsweek
24 minutes ago
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Millennials Are More Patriotic Than Boomers In Car-Buying Habits: Study
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Time Business News
an hour ago
- Time Business News
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Newsweek
2 hours ago
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US Electronic Components Still Turning Up in Russian Fighter Jets: Report
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Electronic components manufactured by U.S. companies are still turning up in Russian fighter jets via intermediary trade routes that experts say evade sanctions, a report has found. According to the report, components used to make Russian weaponry and used in attacks against Ukraine originate from American companies, despite efforts by lawmakers to close this loophole. The report was compiled by the International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR), the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission (NAKO) and media outlet Hunterbrook and shared exclusively with Newsweek. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of the companies that manufacture parts that end up in Russian fighter jets. A Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jet of the Russian Aerospace Forces is pictured in the course of Russia's war with Ukraine, at an unknown location in 2022. A Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jet of the Russian Aerospace Forces is pictured in the course of Russia's war with Ukraine, at an unknown location in 2022. Newsweek contacted all companies mentioned in this article as well as the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security for comment. After Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the U.S. and other Western countries imposed a range of economic and trade sanctions to squeeze Moscow's economy. Companies around the world also left the country to voice their moral opposition to the invasion and to exert economic pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime. But curtailing the flow of goods in an age of globalization has proved tricky, and Moscow has since managed to bolster its war chest by acquiring Western microchips, semiconductors and other materials that can be used to manufacture weapons via third-party countries to evade U.S. sanctions and export controls. Russia imported $20.3 billion in components associated with military equipment from March 2022 to December 2022, according to an analysis by the KSE Institute—a think tank at the Kyiv School of Economics—obtained by Newsweek. More than 60 percent of the components came from U.S. companies, the report found. A 15-month probe by the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, found that 40 percent of 2,500 components analyzed in Russian weapons found on the Ukrainian battlefield were made by four U.S. companies: Analog Devices (ADI), Texas Instruments, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel. The investigation, which wrapped up in December 2024, criticized these companies and the Department of Commerce, which administers export restrictions, for a lack of enforcement action. The new report analyzed 10 Russian attacks from May 2023 to May 2024 that used SU-34 and SU-35 jets. This included one attack on May 25, 2024, in a Kharkiv hypermarket that killed 19 civilians including six women and two children and injured 54 civilians, and another in October 2023 that killed a 63-year-old man and damaged 14 buildings in Kherson Oblast. In total, the attacks analyzed led to 26 civilian deaths and 109 injuries. In the SU-34 jets, NAKO found 227 components from 59 companies including Analog Device, Murata, Texas Instruments and Intel. Of these, 68 percent (154) came from the U.S. In the SU-35 jets, NAKO found 891 components from 138 companies, with 62.3 percent (555) coming from the U.S. The companies included Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, Murata, OnSemi, Intel and Vicor. To verify the information, NAKO analyzed remnants of downed jets and found the components used in markets. They also used confidential sources. "This is shameful," said Michael McFaul, who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014. "American companies cannot be helping Russian companies build weapons that kill innocent Ukrainians," he told Newsweek, urging the Trump administration to impose sanctions to reduce the transfer of these technologies. Anastasiya Donets, head of the Ukraine Legal Team at IPHR, said in a statement: "Western governments and tech manufacturers must confront the reality: current sanctions and export controls have failed to contain Russia's aggression. Governments must implement harsher sanctions against Russia, and manufacturers must introduce higher due diligence and supply chain control standards to prevent their products' diversion into Russia's weapons. Otherwise, declarations of continued support for Ukraine and condemnation of Russia's atrocities will remain just that, declarations. Falling short of timely and adequate action, they will only encourage protracted violence and atrocities worldwide. Moral imperative considerations aside, stopping Russia's war machine is cheaper than deploying boots on the ground next time Russia invades a neighbouring country. Overwhelming Western intelligence shows it will happen within 5 to 10 years. The time to act is now." Mark Temnycky, nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank's Eurasia Center, told Newsweek that trading with third-party actors had cleared a path for Russia. "The European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other Western actors maintain normal trade relations with most neutral countries across the globe," he said. "This has created an opening for Russia as some countries in South America, Africa, and Asia serve as third-party intermediaries, re-exporting Western goods and services to Russia. Many restricted goods, including dual-use items, components and technology for weapons, and other forms of equipment, are being sent to Russia from these countries, providing Russia with the material and equipment it needs to continue its invasion of Ukraine. This is why Western components are still appearing in Russian weapons and equipment," Temnycky added. "To stop this from happening, Western countries should impose sanctions on businesses that serve as third parties for Russia. Punishing these organizations will put additional pressure on their decision to aid Russia, and this will help bring a quicker end to Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine," he concluded. The government is moving to curtail the indirect supply chains that help build Russia's armory. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security published a list of 50 items including electrical parts that Russia uses to make weapons to warn industry leaders. The presence of U.S. components in Russian weaponry is not the only way the U.S. has inadvertently supported Putin's war effort. In January, Newsweek revealed that American firms in Russia paid the country $1.2 billion in profit taxes in 2023. Russia's fossil fuel exports also generated $253.8 billion in revenue in the third year of its war in Ukraine, with some income flowing indirectly from Western countries. The U.S. also imported $192 million in oil products from a refinery owned in part by a Russian company sanctioned by the U.S. Amid this technological backdrop, the war prevails. U.S. President Donald Trump—who before assuming office claimed he could halt the war quickly—and Putin spoke on the phone Thursday as efforts to end the war continue. But Trump said he was "very disappointed" by the Putin call and that he did not think the Russian leader wanted to end the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump are due to speak on Friday. The Pentagon has also announced that it is temporarily halting shipments of certain weapons to Ukraine, while Russia has intensified its military offensive, making significant territorial gains. The war is the largest and deadliest in Europe since World War II.
