Overview
- This week Warren Buffett transferred about $6 billion of Berkshire Class B shares, sending 9 million to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and 1 million each to three family foundations after converting roughly 8,000 Class A shares into B shares.
- Buffett said he intends to donate the rest of his Berkshire holding, roughly $138 billion at current prices, fully by December 31, 2034, implying an average flow of about $17 billion of stock a year.
- Each conversion from Class A to Class B cuts a large shareholder’s voting power because one A share converts into 1,500 B shares and a B share carries 1/10,000th of an A share’s vote.
- Berkshire’s large cash and Treasury balance of about $373 billion and its ability to repurchase shares are cited as ways to absorb the steady supply of gifted stock and blunt market disruption.
- Buffett has made annual gifts since 2006 and historically routed large sums to outside charities like the Gates Foundation, and the new timetable signals a gradual governance shift that could end single-shareholder control by the mid-2030s while Greg Abel prepares to lead the company.