Warren Buffett, the king of stock market, has now given record $57 billion to charity

In the biggest annual donation of his life yet, Warren Buffett gave away $5.3 billion to four family charities and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffett, who has pledged to give away most of his wealth, began making the annual donations in 2006. Buffett's donation on Friday boosted his overall charitable grants to $57 billion.

Buffett donated about 9.93 million shares to the Gates Foundation, and Berkshire shares worth about $43 billion overall, as per the official statement. He donated about 993,035 shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which is named after his late first wife.

About 695,122 shares went to each of three charities, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Sherwood Foundation, and the NoVo Foundation, which are led by his three children, Howard, Susan, and Peter, respectively.

The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation mainly focuses on causes related to women’s reproductive health. The Howard G. Buffett Foundation works to alleviate hunger, improve public safety, and mitigate conflicts across the globe. Meanwhile, the Sherwood Foundation supports Nebraska nonprofits, and the NoVo Foundation focuses on causes for the welfare of girls and women.

After his latest donations, Buffett still owns 14.5% of Berkshire's outstanding shares, Reuters reported citing a Friday regulatory filing. His net worth stands at $128.4 billion making him the world's 10th richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Warren Buffett’s Charitable Efforts

The legendary investor, who will turn 94 in August, pledged to give away 99% of the fortune he built at Berkshire, the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate that he took over in 1965. The $880 billion conglomerate owns dozens of businesses including BNSF railroad and Geico car insurance and has investments in companies like Apple.

Buffett began making annual donations to the five charities in 2006. His plan will be completed in 10 years after his estate is settled. Buffett was worth about $44 billion when the donations began, the billionaire philanthropist said in a statement.

Buffet has so far given away more than half of his total stock of the company since he started the annual charity. The main recipient of Buffet’s donations has been a familiar organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on issues of world health and education.

In 2010, Buffet co-founded The Giving Pledge with fellow billionaire Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates to encourage other billionaires to participate in charity and give away at least half of their wealth. So far, 245 people like OpenAI's Sam Altman, Michael Bloomberg, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg have signed up for the pledge.

In 2023, Buffett emerged as the biggest charity donor of the year. He gave away 1.5 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway Class “B” stock worth about $541.5 million at the time to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, as per Fortune. The grantmaker was created by Buffet in 1964 to manage the family’s charitable giving.

In 2022, Buffet donated over $750 million to the four foundations associated with his family on Thanksgiving, referring to it as the “ultimate endorsement” in his children, as per CNBC.

Buffet has been touted as the largest philanthropist ever as his estimated lifetime giving exceeds $56 billion, as per Forbes’ list of America’s biggest givers, which was topped by Buffet in February.