The rise and fall of the 30-year friendship between Bill Gates and Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates at a Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting.

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, who both rank high among the richest men in the world, have been friends for decades. It began in the 1990s and led to joint ventures and world-changing philanthropy.

But in recent years, both their business and personal relationships have cooled.

Here’s what happened.

A decades-long friendship.

Gates and Buffett’s friendship can be traced back to a single day: July 5, 1991.

Gates’ mother, Mary, invited the late Meg Greenfield, a Washington Post editor, to her home. Greenfield planned to bring her friend Buffett, B-17 previously reported.

Gates didn’t want to take the day off work.

A young BIll Gates in the early years of Microsoft.

Mary Gates pressed her son to join them, but he didn’t want to take the day off work, B-17 reported.

“What were he and I supposed to talk about, P/E ratios?” Gates later wrote in a column for Fortune. But he chose to show up because Greenfield was also planning to bring legendary Post publisher Katharine Graham, with whom Gates wanted to speak.

Buffett made similar comments at the time.

Buffett at a press conference.

Buffett didn’t particularly want to meet Gates, either.

“While we’re driving down there, I said, ‘What the hell are we going to spend all day doing with these people? How long do we have to stay to be polite?” Buffett recalled years later to Fortune.

But the pair hit it off immediately.

Buffett joined Gates at a CEO summit at Microsoft headquarters.

To the surprise of both men, they hit it off, Fortune reported.

Gates recalled being impressed by Buffett’s questions, such as, “If you were building IBM from scratch, how would it look different?”

Gates told Buffett to buy stock in Intel and Microsoft. It was the beginning of a deep friendship and a mutual mentorship.

Friendship and mentorship alike.

Buffett and Gates attend a finance conference.

Buffett has attended multiple Microsoft events, but he’s never served on the company’s board or invested in the tech company, B-17 previously reported.

In 2018, he said it would be a conflict of interest due to their close friendship.

But Gates didn’t have the same concern.

Buffett and Gates at a Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting.

Gates didn’t seem to worry as much about a conflict of interest.

He joined Berkshire Hathaway’s board in 2004 after the passing of Buffett’s first wife, who was a board member, Market Watch reported.

Both say they have a laser focus.

Both men have said they focus on prioritizing tasks and knowing the value of their time.

Both credit their tremendous success to a laser focus, Alice Schroeder wrote in a biography of Buffett. Gates has written that he’s learned from Buffett how to manage his time by prioritizing certain people and tasks.

Shortly after they first met, Gates said he asked Buffett for his favorite business book recommendation, and Buffett lent Gates his copy of “Business Adventures” by John Brooks.

It’s now Gates’ favorite business book, too, and he still has Buffett’s copy.

Joining together on causes.

Warren Buffett, Melinda Gates, and Bill Gates, are seen during an interview in May 2015.

They’ve often joined forces for political and philanthropic causes.

In 2010, Gates and Buffett, along with Gates’ then-wife, Melinda French Gates, started The Giving Pledge, which encourages billionaires to donate most of their wealth to charitable causes in their lifetimes or in their wills. To date, about $600 billion has been pledged.

Gates also credits Buffett with inspiring him to found the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000.

Buffett contributed billions to Gates’ foundation.

Buffett has given billions to the Gates Foundation.

Buffett has given part of his fortune, including Berkshire stocks, to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In 2006, he committed to giving 99% of his wealth to philanthropy and said the Gates Foundation would be the biggest recipient of his donations in his lifetime.

Buffett’s contributions to Gates’ foundation from 2006 through 2023 total at least $39 billion, accounting for the appreciation of Berkshire stock over time, The New York Times reported.

They’ve advocated for policy change, too.

Gates and Buffett on Fox Business Network.

In 2014, Gates, Buffett, and Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson published a New York Times op-ed pushing for immigration reform.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Buffett called Gates his “science advisor.” In February 2020, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $100 million to fight the pandemic.

During the pandemic, they spoke often.

Gates and Buffett once had fun trying out new mattresses.

Pre-pandemic, they’d been seen trying out mattresses in Buffett’s hometown, enjoying Dairy Queen, and playing ping pong.

In July 2020, Yahoo’s Andy Serwer wrote that during the pandemic Warren and Gates were “talking on a more regular basis.” Buffett told Serwer that the two men scheduled a weekly hourlong call, but they usually exceeded the allotted time.

That same year, Gates resigned from his roles at Berkshire Hathaway and Microsoft. The billionaire said he wanted “to dedicate more time to philanthropic priorities.”

But things have evolved amid Gates’s life changes.

Gates attends the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Over the years, Buffett’s feelings about Gates appeared to have cooled. The New York Times reported in August that Buffet began to believe the Gates Foundation had become bureaucratically bloated, hindering philanthropic productivity. He was disheartened to hear some people found Gates rude.

Following the death of disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2019, news emerged that Gates met with Epstein repeatedly. Gates later said the meetings were for philanthropic purposes and were a “huge mistake.”

After that, things changed even more.

Gates and French Gates delivered the commencement speech at Stanford University graduates in 2014.

In 2021, Gates and his wife announced their divorce after 27 years of marriage. Shortly after, Buffett resigned from the three-person board at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“My goals are 100% in sync with those of the foundation, and my physical participation is in no way needed to achieve these goals,” Buffett said at the time.

Buffett said his gifts to the foundation won’t continue after he dies.

Buffett and his children have indicated that their generosity toward the Gates Foundation is limited.

In a 2022 blog post, Gates said half of the Gates Foundation’s resources had come from Buffett’s gifts.

However, Buffett, who is 93 years old, said recently that his 2006 commitment to the foundation would remain only while he lived.

In 2023, he detailed plans for his wealth distribution after his death, leaving it to his three children to disseminate. Buffett made no mention of the Gates Foundation, and The New York Times reported his children have unanimously agreed that none of the remaining Berkshire shares will go to the foundation.

Gates has stopped posting as much about Buffett

The two men seem to have drifted apart in recent years, reports say.

On his blog, Gates once wrote regularly about Buffett.

In 2018, he wrote about how the two friends visited a “fantastic” candy store in Ohama, where Buffett lives and works. In 2019, Gates wrote a post titled “Grilling and chilling with Warren.” In 2020, Gates wished Buffet a happy 90th birthday. It included a photo of him holding a cake with Buffett’s face on it.

But the few posts from 2021 and 2022 that mention Buffett are strictly business. Instead of writing about goofy guys’ trips, Gates thanked Buffett for his generous contributions to the Gates Foundation. In 2023, Gates didn’t mention Buffett in a single post. And in his 20-plus posts so far in 2024, Gates has only mentioned Buffett once, again focusing solely on philanthropy.