Buffett Would Be World's Richest Person If Not For Philanthropy

Warren Buffett shocked the world in 2006 when he pledged to give away nearly all of his vast fortune.

If Warren Buffett hadn’t decided to start giving away his wealth, he would easily be the richest person on Earth. I Photo: USA International Trade Administration

Since then, Buffett has donated more than $55 billion worth of his Berkshire Hathaway shares to charity, including a $5.3 billion gift in late June, Forbes Daily reported.

The donation knocked him down two spots on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people, from 8th to 10th, his lowest ranking in more than two decades.

Forbes estimates his net worth to be $128.9 billion. But what if Buffett, perhaps the greatest philanthropist in history, had instead decided to keep all his Berkshire shares for himself?

Buffett owned 474,998 class A shares, then worth around $43 billion, when he made that historic announcement.

If he still owned all that stock today, he’d be sitting on a pile of stock worth $292 billion. Add in another $1 billion or so worth of class B shares and personal investments, and a less charitable Buffett would have a fortune of around $293 billion.

That would make him some $41 billion richer than the planet’s current No. 1, Elon Musk (net worth: $252.4 billion); $77 billion ahead of No. 2 Jeff Bezos ($215.9 billion); and $102 billion above No. 3 Bernard Arnault ($191 billion).

In other words, if Warren Buffett hadn’t decided to start giving away his wealth, he would easily be the richest person on Earth.

In fact, by Forbes’ estimates, he would be just a hair shy of breaking the record for having the largest fortune ever recorded, set in 2021 when Musk surpassed $300 billion.

With his theoretical $293 billion fortune, Buffett could personally buy the entire McDonald’s Corporation, all of Coca-Cola’s stock, or all 50 of the world’s most valuable sports teams.