Warren Buffett ceased donations to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2026 following public disclosures about Bill Gates’ interactions with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10].

In July 2026, Buffett contributed approximately $6 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock—12 million Class B shares—to four family foundations managed by his children Susie, Howard, and Peter [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]. He omitted the Gates Foundation from this year's donations for the first time since 2006 [1, 2, 5].

Buffett plans to donate all his remaining Berkshire shares, currently valued at over $140 billion, to these family foundations by December 31, 2034 [1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 11, 8, 12]. He said, “Of course, mortality is unpredictable, but my remaining shares will be donated to the four foundations one way or the other by December 31, 2034” [1].

He explained he is accelerating the timeline to transfer his shares due to his children’s advancing age and his own health concerns. “My goal is to dispose of all of my Berkshire shares within about eight years,” Buffett said [3, 4, 6, 7, 9].

Buffett expressed regret about the fallout from Gates’ Epstein ties but no regret over their prior friendship or donations. “While it's distasteful, while he made mistakes, I made mistakes in hiring all kinds of people, or choosing friends... they weren’t what I thought,” he said [3, 4, 9]. Despite ending donations to the Gates Foundation, Buffett and Gates remain in contact and recently met for several hours in Omaha in mid-2026 [3, 6, 9].

Since 2006, Buffett donated more than $47 billion of Berkshire stock to the Gates Foundation and over $17 billion to his family foundations [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9]. The four family foundations receiving the recent donations are the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and NoVo Foundation [2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9].

Bill Gates has denied any knowledge or wrongdoing related to Epstein’s crimes [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. He testified before Congress in June 2026 regarding his association with Epstein [1, 3, 4]. Earlier that year, the U.S. Department of Justice released files documenting their interactions [3, 4].

Buffett’s next scheduled milestone is completing the full donation of his Berkshire Hathaway shares to the family foundations by the end of 2034 [1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 11, 8, 12].