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Warren Buffett would have been richer than Elon Musk today if…
Warren Buffett has a staggering $159 billion to his name today, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Billionaire Warren Buffett, who made a huge chunk of wealth through his investment prowess, would have been much richer than Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person right now, had he not been such a generous philanthropist, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Buffett has a staggering $159 billion to his name today, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, much of which comes from the huge shares he owns in his investment firm Berkshire Hathaway. However, his riches exceed far beyond his wealth. Also known as ‘Oracle of Omaha’, Buffett is highly influential in the world of ultra-rich people.
How rich Warren Buffett could have been?
In the last almost 20 years, Buffett has given away his shares of Berkshire Hathaway worth over $60 billion in donations. As of now, the accumulated worth of those shares would be $230 billion, said Bloomberg.
This means that if Buffett had not gifted away his shares in the last two decades, his net worth would be almost $400 billion as of April 30, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Buffett would have surpassed Musk to become the world’s richest person. Musk has a fortune worth $376 billion as of May 16, 2025, says Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Warren Buffett’s philanthropic journey
While Buffett has said for long that he planned to donate his fortune to charity after he died, he was not such a generous philanthropist for most of his career. He made donations through a foundation he started in the 1960s which he later renamed after his late wife, Susan.
However, things changed in 2006. Buffett announced that he would donate 85% of his wealth right away. That portion of his fortune was worth about $44 billion at the time.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates’ charitable foundation, the ‘Gates Foundation’, played a huge role in Buffett’s philanthropy journey. Buffett had said at the time that most of his donations would go to the Gates Foundation in the form of Berkshire Hathaway stocks. The others, he said, would go to four foundations created by him and his family.
A few years later, in 2010, Buffett strengthened his resolve to philanthropy and founded ‘The Giving Pledge’ along with Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melida French Gates. The Giving Pledge is “a promise by the world’s wealthiest philanthropists to give the majority of their wealth to charitable causes in their lifetime or wills,” its website reads.
Today, the Pledge is a global community of more than 240 donors from 30 countries. Indian billionaires such as Nikhil Kamath and Azim Premji are a part of the foundation.
When his founded ‘The Giving Pledge’, Buffett said that he would give away 99 per cent of what he owns either during his lifetime or after he dies, says the Bloomberg report.
Referring to his family and his shares in Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett said at the time, “Were we to use more than 1% of my claim checks on ourselves, neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast, that remaining 99% can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others.”
