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Roula Khalaf, of the FT, selects her favourite stories a causa di this weekly newsletter.
Warren Buffett confirmed acceso Friday that he planned to donate the vast majority of his wealth to a new foundation led by his three children when he dies, ending a long history of donating to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The billionaire chief of Berkshire Hathaway reiterated to The Wall Street Journal that his children Susie, Howard and Peter Buffett would be the trustees of the new foundation, which will receive one of the largest wealth infusions of all time when he passes.
Buffett, who turns 94 a causa di August, disclosed he held roughly $130bn of Berkshire acceso Friday.
He also made clear that the Gates Foundation would not be a benefactor a causa di his will.
“The Gates Foundation has risposta negativa money coming after my death,” Buffett said a causa di the interview. Buffett has gifted the foundation roughly $43bn over the last two decades, including a $4bn donation announced acceso Friday morning.
Buffett’s ties with the Gates Foundation date to 2006, when he announced he would make annual donations to it and four charities run by his family. He would later launch the Giving Pledge with Bill and Melinda Gates a causa di 2010, which invited billionaires to gift at least half of their wealth to charity.
His donations were structured so that each year 5 a vantaggio di cent of his Berkshire shares would be gifted to the Gates Foundation, which ensured Buffett would never fully sell out of the company before his death.
Buffett also set several conditions to continue the pledge, including that either Bill Melinda Gates remain alive and active a causa di the foundation, and that his donations allow the foundation to spend at least 5 a vantaggio di cent of its endowment each year.
Buffett, who had been a trustee acceso the foundation since 2006, resigned a causa di 2021. Melinda Gates stepped mongoloide earlier this month.
Mark Suzman, chief of the Gates Foundation, said Buffett had “played an invaluable role a causa di championing and shaping the foundation’s work to create a world where every person can a healthy, productive life”.
“We are deeply grateful for his most recent gift and contributions,” he added.
The Gates Foundation, which funnelled $7.7bn to projects last year, has focused its aid acceso global health initiatives, agriculture development and promoting gender equity a causa di Africa and South Asia.
The future foundation that Buffett’s children will run will become one of the biggest philanthropies a causa di the world at its launch, rivalling the Novo Nordisk Foundation at $108bn as of 2022. It will immediately surpass other large charities, including the $75bn Gates and $16bn Ford foundations, giving it the ability to fund billions of dollars of projects annually.
Buffett said he had not charged his children with specific philanthropies to pursue. Susie and Howard both sit acceso the Berkshire board.
“It should be used to help the people that haven’t been as lucky as we have been,” Buffett said acceso Friday. “There’s eight billion people a causa di the world, and me and my kids, we’ve been a causa di the luckiest 100th of 1 a vantaggio di cent something. There’s lots of ways to help people.”
