Only one day is left for Thanksgiving and one famous American investor and philanthropist has already given his gift. This business magnate is identified as 93-year-old Warren Buffett who made headlines after donating more than $870 million in Berkshire Hathaway stock. He made this donation to the foundations of four families. As we said he made this donation in the form of a Thanksgiving gift and he also assured investors in a letter that the empire is “constructed to last”. Well, it is not the first time that he made this much donation but this time the amount is quite huge and people are appreciating his kind gesture.
According to the reports, the Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway donated around 1.5 million Class B shares of his business empire to the Susan Thompson Foundation. This foundation has been named for his first wife. Besides this donation, he also made other donations of 300,000 Class B shares to each of the 3 foundations that are managed by his children: the NoVo Foundation, the Sherwood Foundation, and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. This news was shared by Buffett himself on Tuesday, 21st November 2023 in a released statement “They supplement certain of the lifetime pledges I made in 2006 and that continue until my death (at 93, I feel good but entirely realize I am playing in extra innings).
As we said, it is not the first time that he made this much donation, in the last year of Thanksgiving, he made similar kinds of donations. The reports further state that the “Oracle of Omaha” pledged to give away the fortune he made at Berkshire, the Omaha-based empire he began managing in 1965. Since 2006, he has made annual donations to the same 4 charities. He also issued a rare letter to investors and shareholders in which he again pledged to donate more than 99% of his wealth to the charity along with his children who are working as executors of his will. In the letter, he states that his empire will remain to last and he will make sure that it will remain in good hands.
It is worth noting that he restrained his responsibilities in Berkshire over the last few years, however, he has never publicly portrayed his wish to take retirement from his business even when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2012. The CEO of Berkshire has over the years usually referred to his strength and success at remaining healthy in spite of having a bad eating lifestyle of a 6-year-old. He loves to eat sugary drinks and junk food. He himself shared his bad eating habits during an interview with CNBC in which he stated “I think happiness makes a huge amount of difference in terms of …longevity. I always feel happy when I am drinking Coke and hot fudge sundaes.”
As of now, Berkshire is not available to make any additional comment regarding this donation. The 61-year-old, Greg Abel, the vice chairman of Berkshire is slated to succeed Buffet as the CEO of Berkshire whereas Howard Buffett is appointed as non-executive chairman.