Stock master slices up Bill Gates! Buffett stops donating to the Gates Foundation, keeping all 12 million shares of Berkshire stock with the family

Warren Buffett’s charitable empire sees a historic turning point! According to CNBC, Buffett announced that starting this year, he will no longer donate Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Gates Foundation. Instead, he will transfer the entirety of up to 12 million shares of Class B stock to his family’s four family foundations. The move effectively ends the two sides’ tight cooperation of more than 20 years, and outsiders speculate it is directly related to the scandal surrounding Bill Gates’ involvement with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
(Background recap: “China’s Warren Buffett” Zhang Yongping first bought Circle, the first stablecoin stock! Reduced holdings in Apple, TSMC, and snapped up Tesla and Nvidia)
(Additional context: Buffett warned that the stock market has become a casino—“never have we seen such betting spirit”—and Berkshire holds $380 billion in cash, hitting a new high)

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• 12 million shares shifted to family foundations, aiming to dispose of all holdings by 2034
• The fuse for the breakup: the Epstein scandal and a “pause in conversations”
• First-hand clarification on the front lines, as Wall Street watches for the follow-on effects

The century-long friendship between traditional finance circles appears to have reached an end after the scandal. At age 95, “the Oracle” Warren Buffett recently made a major decision that shocked Wall Street, reshaping the map of his vast charitable asset allocation.

On July 14, 2026, Taipei time, according to foreign media CNBC, Buffett officially announced through Berkshire Hathaway that this year’s annual stock donations will completely “exclude” his past largest and most main recipient— the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

12 million shares shifted to family foundations, aiming to dispose of all holdings by 2034

Instead, Buffett will donate 9 million shares of Berkshire Class B stock to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named after his late wife. In addition, he will donate 1 million shares each to three child-led family foundations: Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and Novo Foundation.

In his statement, Buffett clearly expressed an asset-inheritance timeline: “My goal is to liquidate all of my Berkshire stock within about eight years. As I said last year, my children unfortunately are gradually getting older, and I very much hope that the three of them will complete the liquidation of my shares by December 31, 2034.”

The fuse for the breakup: the Epstein scandal and a “pause in conversations”

The decision marks a major rupture in the long-term, 20-year cooperation between Buffett and the Gates Foundation. Since 2006, Buffett has donated stocks worth more than $47 billion to the foundation. At the time, he even made an “irrevocable commitment,” claiming that as long as either Bill or Melinda remained active at the foundation, he would continue donating during his lifetime.

Why make a clean break now? The Wall Street Journal disclosed that Buffett is currently waiting for the Gates Foundation’s internal review results regarding his relationship with the late sex offender Epstein. This globally shocking scandal is evidently the fatal trigger behind the two sides’ rift.

In fact, as early as this March, Buffett, in an interview with CNBC, did not shy away from admitting that since the exposure of the Epstein incident, he has already been “completely” without any conversation with Bill Gates. When asked whether the two were still close friends, Buffett responded coldly that they had had “good times,” but until everything was fully clarified, “I don’t think it’s wise to say more.”

First-hand clarification on the front lines, as Wall Street watches for the follow-on effects

It is understood that Buffett is expected to personally appear on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” this Wednesday (July 16) to discuss in detail for the first time the ins and outs of the shift in his annual donation strategy.