Warren Buffett to donate $6B Berkshire stock to charities

Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B) (NYSE:BRK.A), is set to donate nearly $6B worth of his company shares to five charitable organizations on Monday, with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation receiving most of the donations.

In a statement late Friday, the Oracle of Omaha said he converted 8,239 Berkshire Hathaway Class A (NYSE:BRK.A) shares into 12,358,500 Class B (NYSE:BRK.B) shares to donate 12,358,321 Class B shares to five foundations.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, chaired by Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates, will receive more than 9.4M shares. The rest will be divided among four Buffett family foundations, including the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named after the billionaire’s late wife.

The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation will receive 943,384 shares, while the Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and NoVo Foundation, all run by Buffett’s three children, will receive 660,366 shares each.

“I owned 474,998 Berkshire A shares worth about $43 billion, and those shares represented more than 98% of my net worth,” Buffett said, adding that he is debt-free and his remaining Class A shares, worth nearly $145 billion, represent 99% of his net worth.

The donations are part of a commitment the 94-year-old made in 2010 under the Giving Pledge, a commitment announced by billionaires including Buffett and Bill Gates to donate the majority of their wealth to address the most pressing social issues.