Warren Buffett excluded the Gates Foundation from his annual charitable stock gifts for the first time in two decades, as scrutiny over Bill Gates' connections with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continues to cast a dark shadow over Gates and the foundation.
CNBC reports that the 95-year-old chairman will donate 9 million Class B shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, and 1 million shares each to the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and the Novo Foundation.
"My goal is to dispose of all of my Berkshire shares within about eight years," Buffett wrote in a statement announcing the gifts.
He added, "As I explained last year, my children are unfortunately growing older. I have every hope that the three of them are able to carry out the disposal of my shares by December 31, 2034."
Buffett's exclusion of the Gates Foundation breaks decades of giving; the foundation has received more than $47 billion in Berkshire stock from Buffett since 2006. This follows scrutiny of the foundation's ties to Epstein, and Buffett has recently said he has not spoken with Gates since the controversy erupted.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the Gates Foundation slashed 500 jobs, or about 20% of its staff, as the organization has come under fire for Gates' ties to Epstein. Back in February, Gates pulled out as a keynote speaker at a high-profile global AI summit in India.
The Gates Foundation CEO recently told employees during a town hall event that the Gates-Epstein relationship had deeply tarnished the nonprofit's reputation, according to a Financial Times report.
However, it is not just the Gates-Epstein ties that Buffett should be concerned about.
Late last year, the Gates Foundation had to publicly sever ties with far-left philanthropic adviser Arabella Advisors, which engineered a revolutionary network of nonprofit entities, including the New Venture Fund, Sixteen Thirty Fund, Hopewell Fund, and Windward Fund, that support the permanent protest industrial complex against President Trump.
Meanwhile, even left-wing outlets like Bloomberg are criticizing the Gates family.
How will Bill repair his image, or will he ever be able to?