If Warren Buffett had been less giving, he would be $87 billion richer than Elon Musk
NEW YORK – To understand just how successful Warren Buffett has been during his six-decade run atop Berkshire Hathaway, consider this: Even his US$167 billion (S$216 billion) fortune doesn’t come close to capturing his wealth and influence.
Over the course of nearly 20 years, Mr Buffett, 94, has gifted Berkshire shares worth more than US$60 billion at the time of donation. That stock would now be worth some US$230 billion, according to Bloomberg calculations.
Put another way: Had the Oracle of Omaha held onto his stake through the years, he’d have a net worth of almost US$400 billion as of April 30, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That’s US$67 billion (S$87 billion) more than the fortune of Elon Musk, the world’s richest person.
“Warren has demonstrated through word and deed how to live an impactful and fulfilling life,” said Seth Klarman, chief executive officer of hedge fund Baupost Group, one of many billionaires to offer emotional tributes in the wake of news that Mr Buffett will retire from running Berkshire at the end of 2025.
Although Buffett had long stated his fortune would go to charity when he died, his giving was modest for much of his career, made through a foundation he set up in the 1960s that he later renamed for his late wife, Susan. But in 2006 he changed tack sharply, announcing he intended to give away 85 per cent of his wealth, then valued at around US$44 billion, starting immediately.
Over the past two decades, Mr Buffett has gifted shares in regular installments. He formed the Giving Pledge in 2010 with Gates and Melinda French Gates, exhorting other ultra-wealthy people to commit to giving away at least half their wealth.
When Mr Buffett founded the pledge, he upped the ante, promising to give more than 99 per cent of his fortune to philanthropic causes during his lifetime or at death.
“Were we to use more than 1 per cent of my claim checks on ourselves,” he wrote in the letter, referring to Berkshire stock, “neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast, that remaining 99 per cent can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others.”
In 2024, he outlined in more detail in a letter to Berkshire shareholders what would happen to his remaining fortune when he died. His three children, Howard, Peter and Susie, will be tasked with donating his remaining shares, and will have to be in unanimous agreement on every decision.
Buffett never strayed too far, physically or in spirit, from his modest Nebraska roots. The son of a politician, he delivered papers and sold candy door-to-door as a boy to support his early fascination with the stock market and investing. He attended graduate school at Columbia University, where he studied under economist Ben Graham, the vaunted father of value investing.
He began acquiring shares of Berkshire Hathaway, a textile manufacturer, in 1962 and turned it into an acquisition vehicle for his bargain hunting. As his bets were borne out, its share price climbed, delivering a return of more than 5,500,000 per cent.
His investment strategy applies to his famously frugal lifestyle, from his hobbies (bridge, ukulele) to his home, a brick-and-stucco Dutch Colonial-style Omaha house he bought in 1958.
It’s unclear how much non-philanthropic capital he intends to leave his children. His wife Susan left them each US$10 million in her will when she died in 2004, which Mr Buffett said was the first large gift they’d given any of them. He once called dynastic wealth “the enemy of a meritocracy.”
“These bequests reflected our belief that hugely wealthy parents should leave their children enough so they can do anything but not enough that they can do nothing,” Mr Buffett wrote in the shareholder letter, repeating a refrain he’s voiced frequently for almost 40 years. BLOOMBERG
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