Warren Buffett has donated $866 million, about €800 million, in shares of his Berkshire Hathaway financial empire to four charities, as reported to the regulator on Tuesday. "At 93 years old, I feel good," he stated one of the largest fortunes on the planet in the letter in which the decision was announced.
Buffett is the fifth richest person in the world, with a fortune of $120.5 billion, according to Forbes. His commitment is to give 99% of his fortune to charity and this new donation will help achieve this. Specifically, she gives 1.5 million shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation. The organization, named after his late first wife, works in reproductive health.
Another 900,000 titles have gone equally to foundations run by her children, Howard, Susan and Peter, that fight hunger and human trafficking or fight for women's rights.
Buffett, who has led Berkshire since 1965, already donated $759 million last year around this time, just before Thanksgiving. "At 93 years old, I feel fine, but I am fully aware that I am playing an extra innings (a baseball reference similar to overtime in other sports)," Buffett said in a letter. "I think happiness makes a huge difference in terms of longevity," he told CNBC in April.
In 2010, Buffett founded The Giving Pledge project with Bill Gates, through which large fortunes commit to donating all or almost all of their money to charity.
Through Berkshire, Buffett has stakes in the technology company Apple, the BNSF railroads, Geico insurance and the textile company Fruit of the Loom, among others. He also has a real estate business in Spain.
