Buffett’s Latest Donations Bring Total Giving to Over $60B—Bigger Than Many Countries’ GDP

Warren Buffett’s recent donation of $6 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) shares to the Gates Foundation and four other charities brings the Oracle of Omaha’s total giving to more than $60 billion. 

That’s greater than the gross domestic product of over half of the world’s countries, according to World Bank data. A net worth of $60 billion would make someone the twenty-sixth richest person in the world, not very far behind Buffett himself, who is the world’s eighth-richest, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Buffett, 94, converted 8,239 Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares into over 12.3 million Berkshire Class B shares, which were donated Monday. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust will receive more than 9.4 million shares, with the remainder going to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and the NoVo Foundation.

Buffett, who announced he will step down from his role as Berkshire’s CEO at the end of the year, now owns 198,117 Class A shares and 1,144 Class B shares, worth roughly $145 billion.

“Nothing extraordinary has occurred at Berkshire; a very long runway, simple and generally sound decisions, the American tailwind and compounding effects produced my current wealth,” said Buffett in a release.