The Rise and Fall of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s Long Friendship

A friendship of several decades.

Gates and Buffett’s friendship can be traced back to a single day: July 5, 1991.

Gates’ mother, Mary, invited the late Meg Greenfield, a Washington Post editor, to her home. Greenfield planned to bring her friend Buffett, Business Insider previously reported.

Gates didn’t want to take the day off work.

Mary Gates pressed her son to join her, but he didn’t want to take the day off work, Business Insider reported.

“What did he and I have to talk about, P/E ratios?” Gates later wrote in a column for Fortune. But he chose to appear because Greenfield was also planning to bring in legendary Post publisher Katharine Graham, whom Gates wanted to speak with.

Friendship and mentorship alike.

Buffett has attended numerous Microsoft events, but he has never served on the company’s board or invested in the tech company, Business Insider previously reported.

In 2018, he said it would be a conflict of interest because of their close friendship.

But Gates didn’t have the same concern.

Gates didn’t seem too concerned about a conflict of interest.

He joined Berkshire Hathaway’s board in 2004 after the death of Buffett’s first wife, who was a board member, Market Watch reported.

Both say they have a laser focus.

Both credit their extraordinary success to a laser focus, Alice Schroeder wrote in a biography of Buffett. Gates wrote that he learned from Buffett how to manage his time by prioritizing certain people and tasks.

Shortly after they first met, Gates said he asked Buffett for his favorite business book recommendation, and Buffett gave Gates his copy of Business Adventures by John Brooks.

Now it’s also Gates’ favorite business book, and he still has Buffett’s copy.

United for causes.

They have often joined forces for political and philanthropic causes.

In 2010, Gates and Buffett, along with Gates’ then-wife Melinda French Gates, launched The Giving Pledge, which encourages billionaires to donate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes during their lifetimes or in their wills theirs. To date, approximately $600 billion has been pledged.

Gates also credits Buffett with inspiring him to found the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000.

Buffett contributed billions to the Gates foundation.

Buffett has given away some of his fortune, including Berkshire shares, to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In 2006, he pledged to give 99% of his fortune to philanthropy and said the Gates Foundation would be the largest recipient of his donations during his lifetime.

Buffett’s contributions to Gates’ foundation from 2006 to 2023 total at least $39 billion, accounting for the value of Berkshire’s stock over time, The New York Times reported.

They have also advocated for policy change.

In 2014, Gates, Buffett and Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson published a New York Times op-ed urging immigration reform.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Buffett called Gates his “science advisor.” In February 2020, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $100 million to fight the pandemic.

During the pandemic, they spoke often.

Before the pandemic, they were seen trying out mattresses in Buffett’s hometown, enjoying Dairy Queen and playing ping pong.

In July 2020, Yahoo’s Andy Serwer wrote that during the pandemic Warren and Gates were “talking on a more regular basis”. Buffett told Serwer that the two men scheduled a weekly phone call for an hour, but usually went over the allotted time.

That same year, Gates resigned from his roles at Berkshire Hathaway and Microsoft. The billionaire said he wanted to “devote more time to philanthropic priorities.”

But things have evolved amid Gates’ life changes.

Over the years, Buffett’s feelings for Gates seemed to have cooled. The New York Times reported in August that Buffett came to believe the Gates Foundation was bureaucratically bloated, hampering philanthropic productivity. He was dismayed to hear that some people considered Gates rude.

Following the death of disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2019, reports emerged that Gates met with Epstein repeatedly. Gates later said the meetings were for philanthropic purposes and were a “big mistake.”

After that, things changed even more.

In 2021, Gates and his wife announced their divorce after 27 years of marriage. Shortly thereafter, Buffett resigned from the three-person board at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“My goals are 100% in sync with those of the foundation, and my physical participation is not at all necessary to achieve those goals,” Buffett said at the time.

Buffett said his gifts to the foundation will not continue after he dies.

In a 2022 blog post, Gates said half of the Gates Foundation’s resources came from Buffett’s gifts.

However, Buffett, who is 93, said recently that his 2006 commitment to the foundation would last only as long as he lived.

In 2023, he detailed plans for the distribution of his wealth after his death, leaving it to his three children to distribute. Buffett did not mention the Gates Foundation, and The New York Times reported that his children have unanimously agreed that none of Berkshire’s remaining shares will go to the foundation.

Gates has not posted more about Buffett.

On his blog, Gates used to write regularly about Buffett.

In 2018, he wrote how the two friends visited a “fantastic” sweet shop in Ohio, where Buffett lives and works. In 2019, Gates wrote a post titled “Growing Up and Chilling with Warren.” In 2020, Gates wished Buffet his 90th birthday. It included a photo of him holding a cake with Buffett’s face on it.

But the few posts from 2021 and 2022 that mention Buffett are strictly business. Instead of writing about the travels of silly boys, Gates thanked Buffett for his generous contributions to the Gates Foundation. In 2023, Gates did not mention Buffett in a single post. And in his 20-plus posts so far in 2024, Gates has only mentioned Buffett once, again focusing solely on philanthropy.