According to the Zhītōng Cáijīng app, 93-year-old Buffett recently revealed to the media that he will stop donating to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation after he passes away. His remaining wealth will be donated to a newly established charitable trust fund, jointly supervised and managed by his children Susan, Howard, and Peter.
In front of the camera, Buffett said with a firm gaze: 'After I die, no more money will be donated to the Gates Foundation.' However, while he is alive, he will continue to donate. In fact, on Friday, he announced a donation of 9.93 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A.US) stock to the Gates Foundation, bringing his total donations to the foundation over the years to over $43 billion. I don't know if old Buff has given Gates the last face in consideration of their 33 years of friendship.
Buffett's friendship with Gates dates back to 1991 when the two met for the first time. Gates has said on numerous occasions that he has learned a lot from Buffett, not only in terms of investment knowledge, but also in life and character wisdom.
In 2006, Buffett announced that he would donate most of his wealth to the Gates Foundation, and served as one of the trustees of the foundation for the next 15 years, until 2021. During this period, Buffett donated shares of Berkshire Hathaway to the foundation and four other family foundations each year.
Back in the day, Gates said that his favorite people were his wife Melinda and Buffett, and even in his office telephone, he set only two speed-dial keys, one for his home and the other for Buffett. In August 2020, he even made an Oreo cake for Buffett's 90th birthday himself.
But everything has changed. Since Gates' divorce from Melinda, Buffett seems to have been trying to distance himself from them.
Gates and Melinda announced their divorce on May 3, 2021, and made the famous announcement that they 'cannot grow together'. But then, a lot of negative information about Gates was revealed. James Wallace, who wrote two biographies about Gates in the 1990s, said that Gates liked to attend 'wild parties' in his youth and was a regular at 'nude nightclubs'. The American media disclosed that Gates met notorious 'sexual predator' Epstein in 2011 and stayed late in his mansion. The outside world speculated that Gates also had sexual relations with minors, which was the main reason Melinda wanted to divorce him.
Buffett announced his withdrawal from the Gates Foundation less than two months after they announced their divorce. All three of them have said many 'nice words' about this, but Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation, said in an email that Buffett's withdrawal is related to Gates' divorce.
As early as 1993, when Gates and Melinda were still dating, Buffett strongly recommended that Gates give Melinda an extremely luxurious engagement ring. Buffett has always been a thrifty person and doesn't like luxury cars, mansions, yachts, or planes. But in 1951, he spent 6% of his net worth on an engagement ring. Gates did not adopt Buffett's suggestion, and in the end, he proposed to Melinda with a 1-carat diamond ring, and the two got married in 1994.
Although Gates is not keen on spending money on engagement rings, he is not stingy when it comes to living quarters, owning multiple mansions across the United States and elsewhere. His main residence is Xanadu 2.0 in Medina, Washington. The 66,000-square-foot mansion has seven bedrooms, 24 bathrooms, six kitchens, a 60-foot swimming pool (with an underwater sound system), a 2,500-square-foot gym, a 1,000-square-foot dining room, and a trampoline room with a 20-foot-high ceiling. In addition, there is a 2,100-square-foot library. In contrast, Buffett still lives in his Omaha residence, which he bought for $31,500 in 1958 and is 6,570 square feet in size.