Warren Buffett’s June 2024 charitable gift was a transfer of 13,008,758 Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares to five foundations—not a $5.3 billion cash payment. Forbes estimated the shares’ value at about $5.3 billion using Berkshire Class B’s June 27, 2024 closing price of $407.95. Buffett made further gifts in 2025, so the 2024 announcement is not his latest donation.
What Buffett gave in June 2024
In a June 28, 2024 announcement, Buffett said he would convert 8,674 Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares into 13,011,000 Class B shares, then donate 13,008,758 of those Class B shares to five foundations. The figures and allocation come from Berkshire Hathaway’s June 28, 2024 release.
The gift was stock, not cash. Forbes’s approximately $5.3 billion figure is a market-value estimate based on the Class B closing price of $407.95 on June 27, 2024; the value of the shares can change with Berkshire’s market price. Forbes’s June 28, 2024 report put the Gates Foundation Trust’s portion at more than $4 billion at that price, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation’s at about $400 million, and each of the other three at about $285 million. These are estimates for the time of the announcement, not current valuations.
Which foundations received shares?
| Recipient | Class B shares |
|---|---|
| Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust | 9,930,357 |
| Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation | 993,035 |
| Sherwood Foundation | 695,122 |
| Howard G. Buffett Foundation | 695,122 |
| NoVo Foundation | 695,122 |
The Gates Foundation Trust received the largest allocation. Berkshire’s release lists these share counts; Forbes’s dollar estimates reflect the June 2024 market price rather than fixed cash amounts.
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Was this Buffett’s latest donation?
No. Berkshire Hathaway announced another annual gift on June 27, 2025: 12,358,321 Class B shares to five foundations, including 9,433,839 shares to the Gates Foundation Trust and 943,384 to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation. In that release, Berkshire said the shares distributed to the five foundations over time had been worth about $60 billion when received. That historical, five-foundation figure is not the value of the 2024 gift alone. See Berkshire Hathaway’s June 27, 2025 release.
A separate Berkshire announcement on November 10, 2025 described gifts to four family foundations, including 1.5 million Class B shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation. It was a distinct announcement, not part of the June 2024 allocation. Berkshire Hathaway’s November 10, 2025 release gives the details.
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How the cumulative giving figures differ
The Gates Foundation’s 2026 fact sheet says Buffett gave the foundation $47.9 billion from 2006 through 2025. That figure is specific to the Gates Foundation and its stated period. Berkshire’s approximately $60 billion figure instead covers the value when received of shares distributed to five foundations over time. The two totals have different recipients and measurement descriptions, so they should not be treated as competing estimates of the same thing. The Gates Foundation fact sheet also reports $8.47 billion in total charitable support in 2025. See the Gates Foundation’s financial information and fact sheet.
For broader current context, the Gates Foundation said in July 2026 that it remains financially strong to advance its work through 2045, supported by Bill Gates’s $200 billion commitment. That statement does not establish the size or recipients of a 2026 Buffett stock donation. Read the foundation’s July 2026 statement.
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