Key Takeaways
- Warren Buffett announced 12 million Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway (the company has two stock classes, Class A and Class B), nearly $6 billion, for the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the NoVo Foundation in July 2026.
- The 2026 round is 4.1 times the 2,924,482 shares the same four foundations received on June 30, 2025, by adding the four transfers in Buffett's SEC filing.
- Gates Foundation 2026 omission: the Gates Foundation Trust received 9,433,839 Class B shares on June 30, 2025, and no Buffett stock in the 2026 round.
The July 2026 round is 4.1 times the family foundations' June 2025 Berkshire shares
Buffett's SEC filing on the 2025 transfers lists 9,433,839 Class B shares donated to the Gates Foundation Trust on June 30, 2025, under what the filing calls his lifetime commitment. The same day he donated 943,384 shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and 660,366 shares each to the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the NoVo Foundation. Those four family foundations received 2,924,482 shares in total.
AOL reports 12 million Class B shares for the four family foundations in July 2026, and InvestmentNews reports the same split: 9 million for the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and 1 million each for the other three. That is 4.1 times the June 2025 total. InvestmentNews, citing CNBC, said Buffett gave the four family foundations about $1.4 billion combined around this time last year, which made this round "more than a fourfold increase" in dollar terms. The 4.1 figure is a share-count ratio, and its June 2025 total comes from the SEC filing. The comparison covers the June 30, 2025 transfers only, and the filing gives share counts, not dollar values.
Berkshire has two classes of stock, Class A and Class B. The filing records 8,239 Class A shares converted into 12,358,500 Class B shares on June 27, 2025, which is 1,500 Class B shares for each Class A share.
The Gates Foundation's 2006 pledge and its first omitted year
AOL, citing the Chronicle of Philanthropy, reports that in June 2006 Warren Buffett pledged 10 million Class B shares to the Gates Foundation, then worth about $36.1 billion, and that the pledge was set to continue as long as Bill or Melinda Gates was alive and active in the foundation. Buffett called the commitment "irrevocable" when he first made it in 2006, according to InvestmentNews. Neither source says whether the 2006 pledge is still in force. AOL also reports that the Gates Foundation says Buffett's gifts total more than $47 billion. The SEC filing names the Gates Foundation Trust as the 2025 recipient, while AOL and InvestmentNews refer to the Gates Foundation. AOL reports the Gates Foundation received 9.4 million shares the year before, which matches the SEC's 9,433,839 for the Gates Foundation Trust.
In his statement, Warren Buffett said: "My goal is to dispose of all of my Berkshire shares within about eight years." AOL reports that he plans to give away all of his remaining Berkshire shares by December 31, 2034. The statement, as InvestmentNews quotes it, says his remaining shares "will be donated to the four foundations one way or the other" by that date. It goes on to describe the three foundations, each managed by one of his children, and the annual grant to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation. Those are the four foundations the statement names. The statement cites his children's ages as a reason for the timeline and says "mortality is unpredictable". InvestmentNews reported in July that his remaining personal stake was still worth more than $140 billion. AOL adds that the statement did not explicitly say why the Gates Foundation was left out.
What the share comparison shows and what it does not
In June 2025 the Gates Foundation Trust received 3.2 times as many shares as the four family foundations combined. In July 2026 the Gates Foundation was not among the recipients, and Buffett announced 12,000,000 shares for the family foundations.
The comparison uses share counts, not dollar values, and covers only the June 30, 2025 transfers. AOL and InvestmentNews do not say why the Gates Foundation was left out of the 2026 round.
People Also Ask
How many Berkshire shares did Warren Buffett announce for the family foundations in July 2026?
Warren Buffett announced 12 million Class B shares for the four family foundations in July 2026, according to AOL, which cites Fortune. The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation will receive 9 million of them, and the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the NoVo Foundation will each receive 1 million.
Did the Gates Foundation receive any Buffett stock in 2026?
No. InvestmentNews reports that the Gates Foundation is absent from this year's distribution. AOL reports that the July 2026 gift includes no shares for the Gates Foundation, which had received Warren Buffett's stock gifts every year since 2006. Buffett's statement did not explicitly say why the Gates Foundation was left out.
How many shares did the Gates Foundation Trust receive from Warren Buffett on June 30, 2025?
The Gates Foundation Trust received 9,433,839 Class B shares from Warren Buffett on June 30, 2025, according to his SEC filing. The filing lists share counts for that transfer, not dollar values.
How much is Warren Buffett's 2026 gift to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation worth?
InvestmentNews reported in July that the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation will receive 9,000,000 shares, worth roughly $4.5 billion.
Sources: AOL, InvestmentNews, SEC Schedule 13D/A filed by Warren E. Buffett.