Billionaires can apparently reject a boardroom, sell a stock, fire a CEO, and, according to Warren Buffett, quit a philanthropy pledge without so much as a legal headache.
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) Chair Warren Buffett isn’t worried about billionaires walking away from the Giving Pledge, even as some prominent figures in the technology world have turned against the initiative he helped create.
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During a March 31 interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick on “Squawk Box,” Quick asked Buffett about recent criticism of the pledge from technology billionaires, including Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen.
“There have been some articles written recently about the backlash in certain sectors, technology billionaires, in particular, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, who have said that they don’t like the Giving Pledge, and they think it’s woke,” Quick said.
Buffett’s answer was blunt.
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“Well, if they don’t like it, they don’t have to belong to the—they can retire from it. They didn’t make a legal pledge anyway,” Buffett said. “There may be any one of a lot of reasons why rich people don’t like other rich people, or who knows what happens.”
He then defended the pledge as a force for increased philanthropy.
“I just would bet a lot of money that nobody is giving less because of it than they would have otherwise given,” Buffett said. “And a fair number of people, not huge numbers—but not insignificant numbers either—are giving it earlier or giving more.”
The comments came as the Giving Pledge faces a rare public challenge from within Silicon Valley’s billionaire class—although Thiel himself never signed it.
Peter Thiel Wants Billionaires Out
Thiel has privately encouraged roughly a dozen Giving Pledge signers to reconsider their commitments, according to The New York Times. He told the newspaper that most of those he had spoken with “have at least expressed regret about signing it.”
Thiel also described the initiative as an “Epstein-adjacent, fake Boomer club” and argued that the pledge has lost much of its appeal.
He specifically urged Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX (SPCX) CEO Elon Musk, a Giving Pledge signer since 2012, to leave, warning that his money could ultimately go “to left-wing nonprofits that will be chosen by” Bill Gates.
The distinction matters because Thiel didn’t personally call the pledge “woke” in the widely reported comments. That characterization came through Quick’s question to Buffett, who was responding to the broader backlash.
For investors watching the billionaire class, the disagreement is less about a stock ticker than about what wealthy founders and executives believe should happen with fortunes created through ownership stakes in companies.
Buffett Sees Giving as the Point
Buffett and Bill Gates launched the Giving Pledge in 2010 with Melinda French Gates. The voluntary commitment asks billionaires to give away at least half of their wealth during their lifetimes or through their wills.
By March, Buffett said more than 200 people had signed on. Quick put the number at roughly 250.
Buffett said the pledge had exceeded his expectations and argued that it has influenced behavior even though it carries no legal enforcement.
“We never told them what to give it to. We never told them when they should give it. We didn’t make an illegal pledge,” Buffett said during the interview.
He also acknowledged that some wealthy people may have good reasons for staying away from the spotlight.
“The biggest objection that people would raise with me, and it usually was by the mother, was that they just didn’t want to become targets of articles about how rich they were,” Buffett said.
Still, the investing legend remains convinced the initiative has done more good than harm.
“I feel good about the giving pledge,” he said.
For Buffett, the math appears straightforward. If wealthy people give away more money, or give it away earlier, the pledge has accomplished something—whether every billionaire agrees with the philosophy behind it or not.
And if a billionaire doesn’t like the terms?
Buffett’s answer is just as straightforward: The pledge is voluntary. They can leave.
On the date of publication, Caleb Naysmith did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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