June 22 (Portal) – Warren Buffett has donated an additional $4.64 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) stock to five charities, taking his total giving since 2006 to more than $51 billion.
The annual donation, made Wednesday, is Buffett’s largest and consisted of about 13.7 million Berkshire Class B shares.
Buffett is donating 10.45 million shares to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has collectively received more than $39 billion in Berkshire stock.
He also donates 1.05 million shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named after his late first wife, and 2.2 million shares to be split evenly among charities led by his children, Howard, Susan, and Peter: the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Sherwood Foundation and the NoVo Foundation.
Buffett is gradually giving away almost all of the fortune he built at Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire, which he has run since 1965.
He and Bill Gates pioneered the Giving Pledge, which saw more than 240 people including Michael Bloomberg, Larry Ellison, Carl Icahn, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg donate at least half their wealth to charity.
Buffett has already donated more than half of his Berkshire stock. After Wednesday’s donations, he still owned more than $112.5 billion, or 15.1% of Berkshire stock.
The number of shares Buffett donates is down 5% each year, but this year’s dollar amount set a record because Berkshire’s share price has risen.
“Nothing extraordinary happened at Berkshire: A very long road, simple and generally sound decisions, American tailwinds and compounding effects have led to my current wealth,” Buffett said in a statement.
“American Tailwind” was coined by Buffett in 2019 to describe the United States’ ability to build long-term prosperity even in times of war and financial crisis.
Buffett built Berkshire into a roughly $740 billion company through companies like BNSF railroad and Geico auto insurance, as well as equity investments in companies like Apple Inc (AAPL.O).
The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation works in the field of reproductive health. The Howard G. Buffett Foundation focuses on alleviating hunger, alleviating conflict, and improving public safety. The Sherwood Foundation supports non-profit organizations in Nebraska and the NoVo Foundation has initiatives focused on girls and women.
Reporting by Jonathan Stamp in New York; Edited by Leslie Adler
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