The Jeffrey Epstein files destroyed a lot of comfortable lies.
Now they have claimed something nobody saw coming.
Warren Buffett just made a decision about Bill Gates that signals the most consequential friendship in American philanthropy is finished.
Warren Buffett Cuts the Gates Foundation From His Berkshire Hathaway Donation for the First Time in 20 Years
For two decades, Warren Buffett's mid-year donation to the Gates Foundation was as reliable as sunrise. Since 2006, he transferred more than $47 billion in Berkshire Hathaway stock to the organization under what he himself called an irrevocable lifetime pledge. Bill Gates was the one man Buffett trusted with a fortune larger than most countries' GDP.
That’s all come to an end.
Buffett announced roughly $6 billion in new Berkshire donations – directed entirely to four foundations run by his own children. The Gates Foundation received nothing — no explanation, no courtesy mention, just a silence that spoke louder than any statement he could have written.
The two men have not spoken since January, when the Justice Department's Epstein files began hitting the public. Buffett told CNBC in March he had deliberately kept his distance.
"I don't want to be in a position where I know things," he said, "to be called as a witness." The Oracle of Omaha – a man who made his fortune reading situations before everyone else – read this one fast.
What the DOJ's Epstein Files Revealed About Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation
The DOJ document dump contained more than 3,000 references to Bill Gates.
Epstein's files show he spent roughly a decade working to insert himself into Gates' inner circle – through Gates Foundation advisers, scheduled dinners, meetings in Norway, and a 2014 breakfast Gates himself described warmly in writing.
Gates testified to the House Oversight Committee in June that he met Epstein in 2011, more than three years after Epstein had already pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida.
He told lawmakers he knew the conviction was "of a sexual nature" but claimed he didn't know Epstein was a registered sex offender. He called the association a "grave error in judgment" and denied witnessing any criminal conduct.
Congress wasn't finished.
The Epstein files also contained a draft email – written by Epstein under a fake name, posing as a Gates Foundation adviser – that referenced Gates' extramarital affairs and what Epstein claimed to know about them.
Gates' team called the contents fabricated. But Gates himself acknowledged at a February Foundation staff meeting that he had conducted affairs with two Russian women, and that Epstein had become aware of those affairs and used them as leverage to try to pull Gates back into contact after Gates attempted to cut ties.
The Gates Foundation hired WilmerHale to conduct an external review of its Epstein ties. That review is still pending.
How the Gates Foundation Epstein Investigation Ended a 35-Year Friendship
For years, Buffett and Gates were fixtures at Berkshire's annual shareholder weekends in Omaha — Gates on Berkshire's board for 16 years, both of them co-founders of the Giving Pledge, the 2010 commitment among the ultra-wealthy to give away the majority of their fortunes.
The break came incrementally. Buffett quietly left the Gates Foundation board in 2021 — the same year the Gates marriage collapsed. Three years later, he announced the Foundation would receive nothing from his estate after his death. Gates skipped Berkshire's May annual meeting entirely, a gathering he had attended for years, after word reached him he wasn't welcome.
Now the mid-year donation is gone.
Buffett told CNBC he had reviewed the Epstein materials and found Gates' conduct "distasteful" but said he found "nothing beyond what I could picture myself doing." He added that Gates had visited him in Omaha three weeks ago for a three-hour meeting, and that Gates had already proposed a follow-up.
Whatever private conversations look like, the public math is simple. Warren Buffett redirected $6 billion away from the Gates Foundation and toward his children.
Trump's DOJ dropped those files in February. Washington told conservatives to move on. The mainstream press called it old news. Six months later, the largest philanthropic partnership in American history is gone.
They said there was nothing to see. Warren Buffett just disagreed with $6 billion.
- Reuters, "Warren Buffett Stops Gates Foundation Donations Following Epstein Revelations," Reuters, July 14, 2026.
- Zachary Folk, "Warren Buffett Drops Gates Foundation From Nearly $6B In Donations," Forbes, July 14, 2026.
- Tyler Roush, "Buffett Calls Gates' Epstein Ties 'Distasteful,'" Forbes, July 15, 2026.
- Josh Funk, "Warren Buffett Quietly Ending One of the Biggest Philanthropic Relationships in History," Fortune, July 14, 2026.
- CNBC Staff, "Bill Gates Tells House Panel 'I Should Have Never Met' with Jeffrey Epstein," CNBC, June 10, 2026.
- CNBC Staff, "Bill Gates Jeffrey Epstein Testimony Released by House Oversight Panel," CNBC, June 23, 2026.
- Wall Street Journal Staff, "Buffett Was Awaiting WilmerHale Review of Gates Foundation Epstein Ties," Wall Street Journal, June 2026.
