Warren Buffett donates $2.1 BILLION to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Cool move: Warren Buffett eats an ice lolly. He has just donated nearly $3billion to charitable foundations

Warren Buffett this week donated $2.8billion of stock in his investment firm to five charities, as part of the billionaire's plan to give away nearly all of his wealth.
Mr Buffett, 83, donated about 21.73million Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway, the so-called Sage of Omaha's investment vehicle, a regulatory filing shows.
About 16.6million shares, worth more than $2.1billion, went to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on education, health and poverty problems.

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The rest went to four family charities, including a foundation named for his late first wife Susan and foundations for his children Howard, Peter and Susan.

The $2.8billion is the most Buffett has donated to these charities, reflecting Berkshire's near-record share price, since he began making annual gifts in 2006.

 

Mr Buffett still controls nearly 20 per cent of Berkshire's stock, which made him worth $65.8billion on Monday, the day the donation was made, according to Forbes magazine.

Only Mexico telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim and Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder and Berkshire director, were worth more, Forbes said.

 

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Thanks: Bill Gates, co-founder and co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which received shares in Berkshire Hathaway worth more than $2billion to invest in its charitable causes

Berkshire has more than 80 operating businesses and ended March with more than $146billion of stock and bond investments.
Mr Buffett has run the Omaha, Nebraska-based company since 1965.

He is widely considered the most successful investor of the 20th century.