Bill Gates’ charity doubles
Buffett, the world’s second richest man, and Gates, the world’s wealthiest individual, met at the New York Public Library where a letter promising the astonishing gift was formally presented.
Buffett, 75, earlier announced a plan to give away about 85% of his estimated $44 billion cash mountain. About $37 billion worth of shares in Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate will go to the Gates foundation.
"It’s a great day for me," Buffett told a press conference with Gates, and Gates’ wife, Melinda.
"I always felt it should go back to the society, and my family agreed with me. The question was how." Buffett urged others to follow his lead, saying "example is important in society".
He said that "people who have been lucky in life and have accumulated a fair amount of wealth" should consider giving their money away like him.
Buffett praised the Gates foundation for "doing the best for the most people," saying it was an "obvious" recipient of his billions.
Gates said the money would be used for a range of programs, including health initiatives, education, agriculture and microcredit.
Bill and Melinda Gates said the search for an Aids vaccine would top their list of things-to-do with the money.
"We dream of an Aids vaccine in our lifetime," Melinda Gates told the press conference. "Whether it takes us 15 years, 20 or 25 years, it is what will break the back of the disease."
Bill Gates, the co-founder of the Microsoft software giant, said: "We’re going to deepen, accelerate what we do around" health and education.
"It’s a big challenge for us to make sure that this money gets used in the right way, but one that we’re thrilled about and thrilled that we’ll have Warren as our third trustee" at the foundation, Gates said.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation already has assets of more than 30 billion dollars. It paid out 1.36 billion dollars in grants on global health, libraries, educational and other initiatives in 2005 alone.
The Buffet plan is to gradually hand over stock in his company that will more than double the value of the Gates charity.
The transfer will start in July with a donation of shares that will enable the Gates foundation to increase its spending by about 1.5 billion dollars.
Buffett now joins Gates, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford and Paul Getty on the list of all time great philanthropists.
In an interview with Fortune magazine released, Buffett, the so-called "Sage of Omaha," said there were no immediate concerns about his health and that he is still "having fun" working in high finance.
"I feel terrific and when I had my last physical, in October, my doctor gave me a clean bill of health," he said.
But he did make a link between the gesture and the death of his wife, Susan Buffett, in July 2004. "She and I always assumed that she would inherit my Berkshire stock and be the one who oversaw the distribution of our wealth to society," he said.
Buffett made billions from astute investments that turned him into a world acclaimed operator.
The son of a stock broker and member of Congress, Buffett reportedly bought his first shares at the age of 11. Virtually all his wealth is concentrated in Berkshire Hathaway, which has interests in insurance, property, energy and jet leasing.
His shares in Berkshire will go to five foundations. But over 83 percent of the stock will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which already has about 30 billion dollars used to pay for medical research and give educational grants.
Fortune magazine estimated earlier this year that Buffett has about 44 billion dollars. It said Gates is now worth about 50 billion dollars. Bill Gates this month announced plans to withdraw from day-to-day control of Microsoft by July 2008 to concentrate on the foundation.
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