Warren Buffett, Bill Gates & Melinda Gates
Lacey O’Toole | CNBC
But in a lead story this week, the Times said that over the past two years there has been “a growing backlash from targeted billionaire donors,” including “a quiet campaign by pro-Trump tech billionaires to destroy the president.”
Peter Thiel told the Times that he personally encouraged about a dozen signatories to cancel their pledges. “Most of the people I spoke to at least expressed regret for signing.”
Peter Thiel
Adam Jeffrey | CNBC
The Times said Thiel was not involved. coinbase Co-founder Brian Armstrong, “an outspoken crypto executive with a clear disdain for liberal politics,” voluntarily left the group in 2024 without any public explanation.
following year, oracle’s Larry Ellison, one of the original signatories, announced he was “amending” the pledge to fund for-profit initiatives not covered by the pledge.
The Giving Pledge website has more than 250 families listed, but the pace of new additions has slowed. In the first five years, 113 people participated. Over the next five years, that dropped to 72, with just 43 signed over the next five years.
The Times quotes sociologist Aaron Horvath, who studied the pledge, as saying it is a “time capsule” of the 2010s that now “feels antiquated.”
He said billionaires now think they can “keep their heads down and keep making money. They don’t have to put up with this philanthropy anymore.”
The newspaper added that in an “era of greedier capitalism” where “billionaires are moving to the right and getting ahead by supporting regimes that are willing to give them favors”, many of them believe that “the real way to give back is through business success” that boosts the economy.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong speaks on CNBC’s Squawk Box outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21, 2025.
Jerry Miller CNBC
Another negative factor for the pledge is the damage to Gates’ reputation due to his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the paper said.
Mr. Thiel has called the Pledge a “fake boomer club adjacent to Mr. Epstein,” but the Times notes that Mr. Thiel himself has ties to Mr. Epstein.
The donation pledge has also been criticized by leftists.
Last summer, a report from the Institute for Policy Studies argued that this was “unachievable, unachievable and not a ticket to a fairer and better future.”
A Pledge spokesperson said the report contained incomplete data and was “misleading.”
Taryn Jensen, who runs the Gates Foundation’s Giving Pledge, told the Times, “In its early days, the Giving Pledge helped build norms in areas where few existed. Our goal is to continue building a culture where giving is the norm and provide support to turn commitments into action.”
And Ron Conway, described in the Times article as a venture capitalist close to Bill Gates, rejected accusations that the pledge was “aligned with liberal causes or woke, so to speak,” saying the pledge is full of conservatives and moderates.
Buffett recalls being irritated by comma added to annual letter
Buffett was also quoted in another major publication this week.
Inspired by Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders, the Wall Street Journal reported on CEOs who used wit and personal anecdotes to elevate the “shady practices of corporate America” and set new standards.
JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon always tries to emulate Buffett’s ability to explain complex financial concepts in plain language, but admits that “it’s difficult.”
“I’m happy when a baby is born,” he said of his annual letter.
In a phone interview with the paper, Buffett said he found it very difficult to accept feedback from personal friend Carol Loomis, a former Fortune reporter who compiled letters to shareholders from 1977 to 2024.
“My first reaction would be to be annoyed, which is totally inappropriate,” but “that’s how it is when you’re writing.”
One of his biggest complaints was that Loomis added too many commas.
Now, he says, they play bridge online every week without any aversion. “At 95 years old, I’ve finally grown up a little.”
Buffett and Berkshire on the Internet
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CNBC’s Buffett Archive Highlights
Buffett talks about philanthropy: “Act with courage” (2006)
Audience: Can you help us think through the capital allocation decisions we face when it comes to philanthropy? …
Warren Buffett: It’s hard to advise other people about that. But you know, you have to choose what’s important to you. And, you know, a lot of people, the majority of America, that’s their church. As you know, more money is given to the church than anything else.
For many, many, many people, it’s their school, or school in general.
I think in most cases you should choose the one that makes you the most happy. It’s probably something you know, something you’ve probably benefited from yourself.
I have a slightly different perspective. The amount of funding varies, but I like to think about things that are important but don’t have natural funders.
But that’s not something millions of people should follow as an example or anything.
There’s nothing wrong with doing something that gives you full satisfaction and provides some benefit to other people in the process.
Therefore, I am not passive. I don’t necessarily think you need to be as objective as you are when buying securities or something like that. In a sense, I want to go where my intuition leads me and make it something you can participate in.
And, like I said, if you’re going to do this with a lot of money, I think there’s some reason, maybe even an obligation, to think about where really a lot of money could have a significant impact on social issues that might otherwise go unnoticed. And, you know, that’s kind of where my own thinking leads me.
But I choose where the money goes and where I know something good will come from it. And by observing what happens, you may be able to make your next gift more efficient and more beneficial than the last.
berkshire stock watch
BRK.A stock price: $720,702.06
BRK.B stock price: $480.94
BRK.BP/E (TTM): 15.50
Berkshire Market Capitalization: $1,036,964,141,358
Berkshire Cash as of December 31: $373.3 billion (down 2.2% from September 30)
Excluding railroad cash and outstanding Treasury bills: $369 billion (4.1% increase from September 30)
Berkshire resumed share buybacks on March 4, 2026.
(All figures are as of the date of publication, unless otherwise noted)
Berkshire’s Top Stock Holdings – March 20, 2026
Berkshire’s top U.S. and Japanese listed stocks by market capitalization, based on the latest closing prices.
Holdings are as of September 30, 2025, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s November 14, 2025 13F filing. However, the following cases are excluded.
A complete list of holdings and current market value is available on CNBC.com’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
Question or comment
If you have any questions or comments about the newsletter, please send them to alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, we do not forward questions or comments to Mr. Buffett himself.)
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I also highly recommend Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders. It’s collected here on Berkshire’s website.
— Alex Crippen, Warren Buffett Watch Editor
