Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has delayed making his annual multibillion-dollar donation to the Gates Foundation for the first time in over two decades, waiting for the Gates Foundation to conduct an independent review of his past relationship with late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein before he can make his annual multibillion-dollar gift to the Gates Foundation for the first time in decades.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Berkshire’s 95-year-old chairman of Berkshire Hathaway is postponing his annual mid-year donation of Berkshire Hathaway shares, he said in a report in this year’s Thanksgiving letter, his traditional Thanksgiving letter which Buffett sends out to shareholders— where he often lays out his philanthropic intentions.
The move is a dramatic departure from Buffett’s long-standing philanthropy. Buffett has donated $48 billion in Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Gates Foundation since 2006, making him the single largest beneficiary of his philanthropy. And his 2025 donation alone was more than $4.5 billion.
The decision comes as the Gates Foundation is under renewed investigation into the ties between Epstein and its founder and chairman, Bill Gates. Emails released by the U.S. Department of Justice show Epstein's conversations with members of the Gates Foundation staff at the time raised new questions about the nature of those contacts.
As a result, Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman sent an independent external review to assess the foundation's past dealings with Epstein. The review is expected to conclude in the summer.
The report says Buffett and others in his inner circle have kept in touch with Suzman and other foundation leaders to get a sense of the scope of the investigation and any conclusions that might be reached before making a final decision on this year’s donation.
In early 2023, Buffett said he wanted to survey what he saw from the Epstein files before he spent his annual gift. In March, in an interview with CNBC, he said he has not spoken with Bill Gates since the US Justice Department released documents related to Epstein.
There was speculation that Buffett's relationship with Gates had cooled in recent months. Bill Gates did not show up at Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting this year (the first time he had missed the event in a long time), which only contributed to speculation about the gulf between the two long-time philanthropists.
Even though Buffett has been waiting for a donation to the Gates Foundation, he is expected to continue making regular contributions to foundations operated by his family (including those run by his children and the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation).
Bill Gates has not been accused of anything wrong with Jeffrey Epstein. The Microsoft co-founder has frequently claimed that meeting Epstein was an error and has publicly apologized for it. Gates has said his interactions with Epstein were all about philanthropy and has never admitted to knowing anything about Epstein’s criminal activities.
He also has denied that he spent time with victims of Epstein’s sexual abuse, saying his contact with the disgraced financier was limited and never should have happened.
Buffett’s decision to pull away one of the world’s largest annual philanthropic gifts speaks to the importance of reputational issues and governance standards in philanthropy. The delay is not a permanent withdrawal of support but it is only a matter of time for Buffett to wait for the independent review and make another multibillion-dollar donation.
