War ren Buf fett has do na ted roughly $3.4 bi lli on of Berk shire Hathaway Inc stock to 5 charities, the billionaire’s lar gest contri bution in his longstanding plan to gi ve away his for tune.
Buffett’s 13th an nual do nation comprised about 17.7 mi llion Class “B” shares of Berkshire, valued at $192 each as of Mon day’s mar ket close.
The lar gest block went to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foun dation. Buffett’s own foun dation, named for his late first wife Susan, and charities run by his children Howard, Susan and Peter re ceived the rest.
Buf fett, 87, has since 2006 made more than $30.9 billion in do nations to the charities, in cluding roughly $24.5 billion to the Gates Foun dation.
His largest pre vious annual do nation had been $3.17 billion, in 2017.
Buf fett still owns rough ly one-sixth of Ber kshire, the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate he has run since 1965, des pite giving away 43 per cent of the shares he owned in 2006.
Following the la test do nation, Buf fett was expected to rank as the world’s fourth-richest per son, worth $79.2 billion, according to For bes magazine.
He would have trailed Amazon.com Inc foun der Jeff Bezos’ $149.7 billion, Mic rosoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates’ $93.6 billion, and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton Chief Executive Bernard Arnault’s $80 billion.
Face book Inc co-founder and Chief Exe cutive Mark Zuckerberg ranked fifth, at $78.5 billion.
The five chari ties typically sell Buf fett’s shares to fi nance their activities, reflecting his de sire that money be spent. Buf fett makes smaller do nations to other cha rities.