Chairman, Chief Executive Officer & President, Berkshire Hathaway
Warren Buffett: Ended Gates donations to give more to my children, not because of Epstein ties
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss his current relationship with Bill Gates, how he came to the decision to cut the foundation from his giving plan this year, whether that is a permanent decision, and more.
About Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett said in a series of CNBC interviews in July 2026 that he has ended his annual donations to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation after 21 years and more than $47 billion in gifts. He stated that the decision was not related to Bill Gates' association with Jeffrey Epstein, which he described as "distasteful." Buffett said he read Gates' congressional testimony and cross-examination on the matter and found "nothing in there that was beyond what I could see I could picture myself doing." He attributed the change to a re-evaluation of his philanthropic plans, saying he now wants his wealth distributed by his three children's foundations and that his children were now ready to handle the responsibility. The Gates Foundation issued a statement thanking Buffett for his decades of support. Buffett also discussed Berkshire Hathaway's $31 billion stake in Alphabet, saying he initiated the investment and that CEO Greg Abel is "the decider" on such moves. He described Alphabet as an AI company and said it is "more likely to be a winner based on the record than probably 90% or 95% of what gets merchandised through Wall Street." Buffett also revealed that he broke his leg a few weeks before the interviews, underwent surgery, and was recovering well with assistance walking.
Transcript (26 segments)
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Interviewer0:00
Gentlemen, we brought you the news here yesterday that Warren Buffett has made his annual donations and this year for the first time in 21 years, that list does not include the Gates Foundation. I sat down with Buffett to discuss his current relationship with Bill Gates, how he came to the decision to cut the foundation from his giving plan this year, and whether that is a permanent decision, meaning that the Gates Foundation will no longer ever get any more money from Warren Buffett.
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Warren Buffett0:29
That's correct. But in interpreting that, I would point out that I've read a great deal since January 1st in terms of what happened with Bill and Epstein. And I've read his remarks to Congress given under oath, and I read cross-examination. And while it's distasteful and while he made mistakes, I made mistakes in hiring all kinds of people or choosing friends and then finding out later that one way or another they weren't what I thought they were. And so I found nothing in there that was beyond what I could see, I could picture myself doing. And you know, he ended it. And I've had situations where I made mistakes about people or people may have felt I made mistakes about me, but life goes on and no one bats a thousand in the business of choosing people. You're talking about hiring decisions, maybe who you're associating yourself with, and there were certainly some questionable decisions on that that came up in the release of these files, but there was also other, you know, personal information.
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Interviewer2:00
Yeah, no, which he admitted to.
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Warren Buffett2:02
Yeah. No. And there again, I would say that I've known some pretty wonderful people and I still know some wonderful people. I don't think they've made every decision.
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Interviewer2:16
So if that's your opinion on it, why are you no longer giving money to the Gates Foundation?
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Warren Buffett2:22
I re-evaluated my whole situation. It's just like I have been doing since I was in my 20s. And we'd gotten married, Susie and I, and we didn't really have any money, but we did know that we intended to live fine and we intended to have a family. But we did not have aspirations of, you know, having six houses or a 500-foot yacht or anything of the sort. So even then we talked about what we would do philanthropically. But my idea and conviction was that I would compound money at a better rate than society generally and that Susie would give it away better than 99.9% of the people that were giving it away. And she would get involved personally with the gifts whereas I like to do things wholesale and she liked to do things retail. So we had a plan but we didn't have any money.
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Interviewer3:25
Why did you change your plans?
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Warren Buffett3:27
Well, we changed plans because of what I said out here. The money began to pile up.
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Interviewer3:33
No, but you changed your plan now. In 2024, you said it was a lifetime pledge to the Gates Foundation. Now in 2026, you were saying that's not the case. What happened?
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Warren Buffett3:43
Well, what happened was that I gave the Gates Foundation a great deal of money, maybe 47 billion in total. I thought that was a good decision. I think it was a decent decision, but I did not think my kids were in any way ready to give away vast sums of money. We had started, Susie and I started with them. I think we gave them $100,000 each. This goes back 30 years at this point or longer.
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Interviewer4:13
That's about right. Yeah. But they were growing children. I mean they had children of their own by that time. But still, I don't think they were ready for it.
So then is it fair to say 20 years ago in 2006 when you made this decision, you trusted the Gates Foundation more than your children, and now you trust your children more than the Gates Foundation?
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Warren Buffett4:39
No, because the times were different. It isn't to say that I trusted them differently, but I felt they were capable of handling it. And I was certainly not going to turn something over to my kids and then pull it back from them. The Gates Foundation has turned out to earn far more money than they expected to do. They spend more money than anybody in the world that I can think of.
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Interviewer5:06
Yeah, they have an endowment of north of $90 billion, I think, at this point.
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Warren Buffett5:09
It's around that figure and Bill has very substantial resources outside which he intends to give, and I believe 100% that they will go there. And I've really done the same thing as Bill in a certain sense. I'm telling my three children that it is theirs and it's their responsibility to get it done well. And you may find this hard to believe, but it's true. I've never looked at their Form 990 which they file. I'm not judging each action as it takes place because you take actions where you think there's only a 10% or 20% probability of success. It's not like investment.
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Interviewer5:57
Before we move on, does Bill Gates know about this? When we spoke with you in March, you said you had not spoken with him since any of these allegations started coming out. He said the same thing last month in June when he sat down with this congressional testimony that he had not spoken with you since January. Have you spoken with him since? And does this come as a surprise to him?
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Warren Buffett6:18
No, it does not come as a surprise. And he came by Omaha, I don't know, three weeks ago or I kind of lose track of time, but certainly not three months, but since we talked. And we spent three hours talking together. And he intends to call me. He's the one that initiates calls just generally, and you can see I'm available anytime. But he's much more organized than I am. He already proposed another one.
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Interviewer7:02
Another meeting.
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Warren Buffett7:03
Yeah. And we have had an enormous number of good times together since we met in 1991, and he's always done more than his share. Always more than his share. You don't see me doing the planning or doing...
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Interviewer7:23
And the friendship you mean.
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Warren Buffett7:24
Yeah, it's been a wonderful friendship. Bill and I are interested in enough things that overlap that we find plenty to talk about, and then each of us has got his own specialty to some extent.
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Interviewer7:43
But you told him three weeks ago or so when you met him that you would not be making any more donations to the Gates Foundation.
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Warren Buffett7:49
Yeah, I may have. I can't tell you exactly what I told him, but at some point I had read what the Congress came up with. I've read everything. And all I can say is, I don't know whether I've done dumber things but I've done many dumb things in life. I mean, all I have to do is look at our portfolio. Four out of five of the decisions I have made have not been anything out of the ordinary.
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Interviewer8:30
But he was okay when you told him that?
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Warren Buffett8:33
He was okay. And we did hear from the Gates Foundation late yesterday. This is what they had to say: 'The Gates Foundation is grateful to Warren Buffett for his decades of support for our work. His gifts totaling more than $47 billion have helped us expand and deliver on the foundation's mission to improve health and opportunity for people around the world. The foundation continues from a position of financial strength to advance our work through 2045, supported by Bill's $200 billion commitment.'
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Interviewer9:06
Okay. I also asked Buffett how he's feeling. This is something that obviously he's about to turn 96 years old. We're just a little more than a month from that birthday. He did tell us that he broke his leg a few weeks ago. He had surgery and he's recovering well as you can see in that video. I saw him get up. He's already walking with some assistance, getting around walking again with that. He does say that he's been really lucky and that he hasn't broken a leg in his life until now, and that while he has a lot to be thankful for, he's no longer thankful for the fact that he has never broken his leg.