Warren Buffett, a founding trustee of the Gates Foundation, also co-founded The Giving Pledge alongside Bill Gates and his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, to encourage billionaires to commit a significant share of their wealth to philanthropy.

Buffett stepped down from the Gates Foundation’s board in 2021 but has continued to contribute billions of dollars to the charity each year.

In a statement released on Tuesday, he said he would donate 9 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares, valued at about $4.4 billion, to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation.

He also pledged 1 million Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares, valued at roughly $496 million each, to the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the Novo Foundation, bringing the total value of the donations to nearly $6 billion.

The announcement follows reports that Buffett was reassessing future donations to the Gates Foundation.

In June, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Berkshire Hathaway chairman had delayed a decision on additional contributions while awaiting the outcome of an independent review into the foundation’s past links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

According to the report, Buffett had been in discussions with the foundation’s leadership and planned to revisit the matter later this year. However, the Gates Foundation was notably absent from Tuesday’s list of beneficiaries.

Buffett, 95, also used the announcement to reaffirm his long-standing commitment to philanthropy, saying he remains on course to distribute the rest of his fortune over time.

“My goal is to dispose of all of my Berkshire shares within about eight years,” Buffett said.

The latest donation comes after Buffett’s record charitable contribution of about $6 billion in 2025, when the Gates Foundation was still among the beneficiaries.