Warren Buffett Pausing Gates Foundation Donations Until Epstein Review Is Out

Once upon a time, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates were the best of buddies. They traveled together, played bridge together, talked on the phone every week, and — like two people worth a combined $250 billion–plus — picked up stunt shifts at Dairy Queen, one of the companies owned by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Famously, they also launched a campaign to convince fellow extremely rich people to give away at least half of their net worth to philanthropic endeavors either in life or at death; accordingly, the 95-year-old Buffett donated some $48 billion to the Gates Foundation between 2006 and 2025. But there’s nothing like (further) revelations about your longtime friend and one of the most notorious sex offenders to put a damper on your charitable donations.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Buffett is “skipping his usual midyear donation to the Gates Foundation so the famed investor can wait to see the findings of a review into the foundation’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein,” according to people familiar with the matter. In the past, Buffett has donated billions in Berkshire Hathaway stock in June or July to the foundation established by Gates and his now-ex-wife, Melinda French Gates. According to the Journal, the results of a review by law firm WilmerHale into the organization’s connection to Epstein will be out this summer; Buffett is expected to make his decision later in the year, potentially around Thanksgiving, when he writes his annual letter to investors. Buffett stepped down as a trustee of the Gates Foundation in 2021, the same year the Gateses divorced; French Gates said in an interview that while “many things” led to the couple’s split, she “did not like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein” and “made that clear.”

In 2019, the New York Times reported that Gates met with Epstein “on numerous occasions— including at least three times at Mr. Epstein’s palatial Manhattan townhouse, and at least once staying late into the night,” and that the relationship began after the disgraced financier was convicted of sex crimes. The outlet also reported that employees of the Gates Foundation “paid multiple visits” to Epstein’s mansion. In 2011, Gates reportedly told colleagues in an email about Epstein: “His lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing although it would not work for me.” (A spokesperson for the billionaire told the Times he “was referring only to the unique décor of the Epstein residence — and Epstein’s habit of spontaneously bringing acquaintances in to meet Mr. Gates.”)

Emails released in January 2026 by the Justice Department showed Epstein had drafted messages “to and about Bill Gates … suggesting that he engaged in extramarital sex,” with one claiming Epstein had facilitated encounters with married women for Gates. A spokesperson for Gates has said “these claims — from a proven, disgruntled liar — are absolutely absurd and completely false. The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame.”

In June, Gates testified to the House Oversight Committee that his last contact with Epstein was in 2015. He also told the committee that he was surprised Epstein seemed to know about affairs he had with a Russian bridge player and nuclear scientist; he reportedly also told the lawmakers that Epstein hadn’t blackmailed him but it looked like things may have been going in that direction.

In an interview with CNBC in March, Buffett said he hadn’t spoken with Gates “since the whole thing” — in other words, the Epstein files — were “unveiled.” He added, “I don’t want to be in a position where I know things … to be called as a witness.”