Warren Buffett has given almost half of his fortune to charity. He would still be $49 billion poorer than Jeff Bezos if he had kept it.
- Warren Buffett has gifted nearly half of his wealth to charitable causes.
- If the famed investor had kept all 475,000 of his Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares, they would be worth about $129 billion today, making him the world's second-wealthiest person.
- His fortune would still be almost $50 billion short of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' $178 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
- Even at Berkshire's peak stock price in January, Buffett would have a $164 billion fortune and still be poorer than Bezos.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Warren Buffett has now donated almost half of his fortune to charity. Even if he had kept it, he would be nearly $50 billion poorer than Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
The famed investor has given away roughly 226,000 of his Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares, worth a little over $61 billion at the current stock price of $272,400.
He still owns around 249,000 or 52% of his Class A shares, currently worth about $68 billion — not far off his estimated net worth on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
If Buffett had held on to all 475,000 Class A shares, they would be valued at $129 billion today, assuming Berkshire's stock price wouldn't be affected by his lack of giving.
A net worth of that size would catapult him from sixth place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index to second place, overtaking Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates and his $115 billion fortune.
However, Bezos is currently worth $178 billion, or $49 billion more than a theoretically stingy Buffett. Amazon stock has surged more than 60% this year, boosting Bezos' fortune by roughly the same proportion.
Even at Berkshire's peak Class A share price of about $345,000 in mid-January of this year, Buffett's shares would be worth around $164 billion — still about $14 billion shy of Bezos' net worth.
To be fair, Bezos' wealth would also be higher without his charitable contributions. However, he has been far quieter on the philanthropic front.
The Amazon chief's most notable moves are launching a $2 billion fund focused on education programs for homeless people in 2018, and pledging $10 billion toward fighting climate change in February.