Warren Buffett Would Be $67 Billion Richer Than Elon Musk If...

To understand just how successful Warren Buffett has been during his six-decade run atop Berkshire Hathaway Inc., consider this: Even his $167 billion fortune doesn't come close to capturing his wealth and influence.

Over the course of nearly 20 years, Buffett, 94, has gifted Berkshire shares worth more than $60 billion at the time of donation. That stock would now be worth some $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 $400 billion as of April 30, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That's $67 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 Buffett will retire from running Berkshire at the end of the year.

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% of his wealth, then valued at around $44 billion, starting immediately.

He said at the time that most of his donations, all made in the form of Berkshire Hathaway stock, would go to his friend Bill Gates' juggernaut philanthropy, the Gates Foundation, with the remaining flowing to four foundations set up by him and his three children.

"I know what I want to do," he told Fortune at the time, "and it makes sense to get going."

Giving Pledge

Over the past two decades, 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. Those names now include Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Ellison, who wrote that "Warren Buffett personally asked me to write this letter," in his statement upon joining.

When Buffett founded the pledge, he upped the ante, promising to give more than 99% of his fortune to philanthropic causes during his lifetime or at death. The legendary investor said in a letter at the time that "my family and I will give up nothing we need or want by fulfilling this 99% pledge."

"Were we to use more than 1% 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% can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others."

Last year, 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. Separately, he confirmed the Gates Foundation, whose board he resigned from in 2021, would stop receiving gifts upon his death. Gates announced last week he plans to double his foundation's giving and close it down in 2045.

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%. Buffett briefly reigned as the world's richest person in 2008.

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. His empire is also unique for its extreme concentration. More than 99.5% of his fortune is tied to Berkshire shares, according to the 2024 shareholder letter.

It's unclear how much non-philanthropic capital he intends to leave his children. His wife Susan left them each $10 million in her will when she died in 2004, which 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," Buffett wrote in the shareholder letter, repeating a refrain he's voiced frequently for almost 40 years.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)