Billionaire investor Warren Buffett refuses to guarantee he will continue his massive yearly contributions to the Gates Foundation after recent revelations about Bill Gates’ connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
During his first television appearance since leaving his role as Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO in January, the 95-year-old Buffett revealed to CNBC that he hasn’t spoken with Gates since February, when the Justice Department made public documents showing Gates and Epstein held multiple meetings about charitable work after Epstein’s 2008 conviction on Florida prostitution charges.
Buffett, who still serves as Berkshire’s chairman, started distributing his wealth in 2006 and has contributed over $47 billion in company stock to the Gates Foundation since then.
His typical pattern involves giving Berkshire shares to the foundation and four family-related charities each year around mid-year, plus additional November donations to the family charities. His 2024 contribution to the Gates Foundation exceeded $4.5 billion.
When questioned about whether his Gates Foundation contributions would persist, Buffett responded: “I’ll wait and see what unfolds. I’m learning things I didn’t know.”
The foundation hasn’t yet provided comment on Buffett’s statements. In February, the organization stated that Gates “took responsibility for his actions” during an employee town hall where the Microsoft co-founder addressed his Epstein associations.
Buffett announced in 2024 that his Gates Foundation donations would cease upon his death, with 99.5% of his remaining assets transferring to a charitable trust managed by his children.
The New York Times reported that Buffett had developed concerns about the foundation’s expansion and its decreased willingness to pursue risky initiatives that might yield greater philanthropic impact.
The Justice Department documents contained photographs showing Gates with Epstein, along with images featuring women whose identities were concealed.
Gates has maintained that his interactions with Epstein were strictly philanthropic in nature and acknowledged meeting with him was an error. He has also rejected claims of any contact with victims of the financier’s sexual crimes.
This month, Vanity Fair reported that Epstein seemingly facilitated a “large portion” of $8 million in Gates Foundation grants distributed between 2013 and 2019 to a think tank focused on global peace and security issues, but potentially linked to obtaining visas for young Eastern European women.
The foundation told Vanity Fair that Epstein played no role in their grant approval procedures.
Speaking to CNBC, Buffett expressed no regret about his foundation donations but stated he wished “certain things hadn’t happened.”
He also voiced amazement at how Epstein deceived numerous individuals before his July 2019 arrest on sex-trafficking charges. Epstein died the subsequent month while held in a Manhattan detention facility.
“I don’t see how anybody could have pulled that off,” Buffett commented. “This guy found people’s weaknesses … It is ruining one person after another.”
