Warren Buffett Drops Out of Top 5 Richest After Historic $6B Donation

Billionaire Warren Buffett donated another $6 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Gates Foundation and four family charities. The donation made on Friday was his biggest annual donation since he began giving away his fortune nearly two decades ago.

Warren Buffett donated a total of 9.43 million shares to the Gates Foundation and 9,43,384 shares to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, according to a Reuters report. In addition, he donated 6,60,366 shares to charities run by his three children: the Howard G. Buffett Foundation (Howard), the Sherwood Foundation (Susie), and the NoVo Foundation (Peter).

Warren Buffet's World's Richest ranking

According to Reuters, Warren Buffett still owns 13.8 per cent of Berkshire's stock. Prior to the donations made on Friday, his net worth was $152 billion which made him the world's fifth-richest person, according to Forbes magazine. However after the donations Buffett will rank sixth richest, which surpassed the $5.3 billion he donated last June. In November last year he donated another $1.14 billion to the family charities.

Buffett, now aged 94 years, began giving away his fortune in 2006 and has maintained in a statement that he does not plan on sell any Berkshire shares. He changed his will last year, allocating 99.5 per cent of his remaining fortune to be sent to a charitable trust overseen by his children. According to the will, the children will have a decade o distribute the money, decisions of which will be made by them unanimously.

Berkshire has been led by Buffett since 1965 and owns close to 200 businesses including Geico car insurance and the BNSF railroad, and dozens of stocks including Apple and American Express.