Buffett defends 'Giving Pledge' against Thiel and 'billionaire backlash'

In this article BRK.B COIN JPM BRK.A Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT (This is the Warren Buffett Watch newsletter, news and analysis on all things Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. You can sign up here to receive it every Friday evening in your inbox.) Warren Buffett is defending the philanthropic initiative he co-founded with Bill Gates almost 15 years ago as it faces what The New York Times calls a "billionaire backlash." Buffett wrote in an email to the newspaper, "I firmly believe in the Giving Pledge and consider it quite a success, though my physical limitations have eliminated my participation in the annual get-together. "I have continued to contact possible members but only on a minor scale in recent years. Bill Gates has continued major efforts." In 2010, Buffett said he and Gates hoped to "establish a new norm" with the Pledge, which is a " promise by the world's wealthiest philanthropists to give the majority of their wealth to charitable causes in their lifetime of wills ." Warren Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates Lacy O'Toole | CNBC But in a major article this week , the Times says that over the past two years, "there has been a growing backlash from the billionaires who are its target donors," including a "quiet campaign by one pro-Trump tech billionaire to destroy it." Peter Thiel tells the Times he has privately encouraged around a dozen signers to cancel their pledges. "Most of the ones I've talked to have at least expressed regret about signing it." Peter Thiel Adam Jeffery | CNBC While the Times says Thiel wasn't involved, Coinbase co-founder Brian Armstrong, "an outspoken crypto executive who now evinces a disdain for liberal politics," voluntarily left the group in 2024 without a public explanation. The next year, Oracle's Larry Ellison, one of the first signers, announced he was "amending" his pledge to give some money to for-profit initiatives that the Pledge doesn't cover. More than 250 families are listed on the Giving Ple...