Warren Buffett Is Donating $1.1 Billion in Berkshire Hathaway Shares to Charity

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Warren Buffett is making massive headways in his effort to give away his wealth.

The investor announced on Monday that he’s donating $1.1 billion in Berkshire Hathaway shares to four charitable foundations, Bloomberg reported. The 94-year-old businessman is turning 1,600 Class A shares into 2.4 million Class B shares. Of those, 1.5 million will go toward the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named after his late wife, and 300,000 each will go toward his children’s groups: the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and the NoVo Foundation.

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Currently, Buffett is the seventh-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $150.2 billion, Bloomberg noted. More than a decade ago, the businessman said he would endeavor to donate his fortune either during his life or at his death, part of the Giving Pledge he started with Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Other notable names have since made similar declarations, including Jeff Bezos and Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI.

Back in June, Buffett said his three children were overseeing a new charitable trust. “Susie and I had long encouraged our children in small philanthropic activities and had been pleased with their enthusiasm, diligence and results,” Buffett wrote in a letter to shareholders on Monday, according to the outlet. “At her death, however, they were not ready to handle the staggering wealth that Berkshire shares had generated. Nevertheless, their philanthropic activities were dramatically increased by the 2006 lifetime pledge that I subsequently made and later expanded.”

While his children will largely handle the dispersal of his wealth, Buffett has also put in place three successor trustees who would take over once his children die, Bloomberg reported. These people remain anonymous, but Buffett said that they’re younger than his kids, who are currently in their 60s and 70s.

“The massive wealth I’ve collected may take longer to deploy than my children live. And tomorrow’s decisions are likely to be better made by three live and well-directed brains than by a dead hand,” Buffett wrote. “But these successors are on the wait list. I hope Susie, Howie, and Peter themselves disburse all of my assets.”

Since pledging to give away his fortune, Buffett’s Class A shares have dwindled almost 57 percent, Bloomberg noted. One day, eventually, they’ll all be gone.

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