By Andrew Bary

June is nearly over and there is still no word yet on how Warren Buffett will allocate his annual contribution of Berkshire Hathaway stock and whether the Gates Foundation will remain a recipient of his largess.

During the past six years, Buffett, 95, announced in mid to late June his annual gifts — the total in June 2025 was about $6 billion — and the bulk of them have gone to the Gates Foundation, which is chaired and controlled by billionaire Bill Gates.

Before 2020, the contributions were sometimes announced in July. In 2025, Buffett announced his gifts on June 27, and he did so on June 28, 2024.

The Gates Foundation has been the largest recipient of Buffett's yearly giving since he began donating his Berkshire Hathaway stock in 2006. The foundation has received a total of more than $48 billion from Buffett in the form of Berkshire Class B shares.

In a CNBC interview in late March, Buffett said that he hadn't made up his mind about continuing the Gates Foundation gifts in light of fresh revelations earlier this year about Bill Gates' relationship with the late Jeffrey Epstein. Buffett is Berkshire's chairman, and was succeeded as CEO by Greg Abel at the start of this year.

Buffett was asked by CNBC anchor Becky Quick: "If you don't give the money to the Gates Foundation, are you in violation of the pledge that you made? Or if you do give the money, are you condoning the behavior that has taken place?

He replied: "I don't have to make that decision today." Buffett added that "I'll wait and see what unfolds. The stock isn't going anyplace."

There was no immediate comment from Buffett or the Gates Foundation. Barron's wr ote earlier in June that Buffett might not continue his gifts to the Gates Foundation.

The once-close relationship between Buffett and Gates has deteriorated in recent years, raising the question of whether Buffett will continue his annual gifts to the foundation.

In the CNBC interview, Buffett said he hadn't talked to Gates "since the whole thing was unveiled." He added: "I don't want to be in a position where I know things at the moment. I could get called as a witness."

Buffett and Gates had been close. Gates served on the Berkshire board for about 15 years until 2020.

Buffett's contributions to the Gates Foundation began in 2006 when he began giving away his Berkshire stock, and he has since given away more than half of what had been a roughly one-third stake in the conglomerate. Buffett now holds a 14% stake in the company.

Buffett was more interested in running Berkshire than giving away his fortune, and he thought he found an ideal partner in the Gates Foundation, then co-chaired by Bill Gates and his former wife, Melinda Gates, to sop up lots of his annual giving for what Buffett viewed as worthwhile causes.

Buffett makes his largest annual contribution of Berkshire stock around midyear and last year he gave away about $6 billion in Class B shares after converting them from A stock.

About 75% of that 2025 contribution went to the Gates Foundation, with the rest going to several Buffett family foundations, including ones run by each of his three children.

The formula for the annual June contribution is that Buffett gives away 5% less stock each year. That means this year's contribution could total about $5.5 billion with Berkshire's Class B shares trading around $495.

Before this year, Buffett said that the annual contributions to the Gates Foundation would end after his death, and that his three children, who each run their foundations, would be responsible for giving away his fortune, almost entirely in Berkshire stock now worth about $145 billion, in about a decade after his death. The three children are Susan, Howard and Peter Buffett.

If Buffett doesn't make an annual contribution to the Gates foundation, it will be interesting to see if he gives more to his children's foundations.

It would also leave a void at the Gates foundation, which gave away $8.5 billion in 2025, with the Buffett gift funding the bulk of the spending.

The Gates foundation has ample funds to continue its giving program without any Buffett gifts given an endowment of $89 billion. Gates last year pledged to give away his wealth via the Gates Foundation through 2045 and spend more than $200 billion.

Additional details about Gates' relationship with Epstein came to light earlier this year when the Justice Department released more files on the Epstein case. The Wall Street Journal reported in February that Gates apologized to staff of the Gates Foundation over his ties to Epstein.

Those revelations have meant more embarrassment for the 70-year-old Gates.

In reporting on Gates' recent testimony before Congress, The Wall Street Journal wrote last week that Epstein learned that Gates "had had affairs during his marriage and tried to leverage that information against the billionaire philanthropist,"

The Gates foundation said in March that it would conduct an "external review to assess past foundation engagement with Epstein."

Write to Andrew Bary at [email protected]

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