Key Takeaways
- Warren Buffett recently doubled down on the Giving Pledge, calling it “quite a success” and saying he still quietly recruits members.
- The initiative faces a growing “billionaire backlash,” including a campaign by Peter Thiel, who said that most signatories he has spoken to regret joining.
- The broader tension is over how billionaires should do good: through large philanthropy or through business-building.
Warren Buffett is making a rare public statement to reassert his allegiance to the Giving Pledge, a commitment made by the world’s wealthiest philanthropists to give the majority of their wealth to charitable organizations throughout their lifetime or in their wills. The Pledge, however, is now facing a “billionaire backlash,” according to The New York Times.
Buffett wants people to know that the Giving Pledge is working as intended, even as it faces attacks.
“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,” the billionaire wrote in a recent email to The Times. “I have continued to contact possible members but only on a minor scale in recent years.”
Buffett created the Giving Pledge in 2010 with Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, and credits the Pledge with establishing a new philanthropic norm among the ultra-rich. The philanthropic billionaire pledged to donate over 99% of his wealth to philanthropy during his lifetime or at death.
Pushback against the Pledge
Over the past two years, the Pledge has faced “a growing backlash from the billionaires who are its target donors,” the Times reported. Billionaire Peter Thiel has emerged as the most vocal critic, telling the Times that he has privately urged about a dozen signers to retract their pledges.
“Most of the ones I’ve talked to have at least expressed regret about signing it,” he said.
Thiel is warning fellow conservatives that participation in the Pledge risks funnelling fortunes into “left-wing nonprofits chosen by Bill Gates.” However, Ron Conway, a venture capitalist close to Gates, told the Times that the Pledge is not “aligned with liberal causes,” stating that it has plenty of support from conservatives and moderates.
Beyond Thiel’s campaign, there are structural signs that the Pledge has stalled. After a surge of early signers, the rate of new commitments has dropped sharply: just a few dozen billionaires have joined in the past five years, versus more than a hundred in the first five. It’s unclear why this drop has occurred.
Several billionaires have quietly distanced themselves, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, whose pledge letter disappeared from the website in 2024 with no public explanation, according to the Times.
In 2025, Oracle’s Larry Ellison stated that he was “amending” his commitment to provide funding to his own research institute and to for-profit ventures not covered by the Pledge.
Different approaches to giving
Over the years, the Giving Pledge has become “old school” and a “time capsule” of the 2010s, Aaron Horvath, a sociologist who has studied the Pledge, told the Times. He said billionaires now believe, “I can keep my head down and keep making money. I don’t have to put up with this charity charade anymore.”
According to the Times, Thiel and his allies are advancing a kind of “voracious capitalism,” arguing that the “real way to give back” is to build successful businesses and drive innovation.
The Pledge, by contrast, frames large-scale giving as a moral obligation once fortunes exceed any reasonable consumption or investment need, per TechCrunch. In this view, philanthropy is a solution to problems that pure profit-seeking will not touch, from global health to extreme poverty.
Key Takeaways
- Warren Buffett recently doubled down on the Giving Pledge, calling it “quite a success” and saying he still quietly recruits members.
- The initiative faces a growing “billionaire backlash,” including a campaign by Peter Thiel, who said that most signatories he has spoken to regret joining.
- The broader tension is over how billionaires should do good: through large philanthropy or through business-building.
Warren Buffett is making a rare public statement to reassert his allegiance to the Giving Pledge, a commitment made by the world’s wealthiest philanthropists to give the majority of their wealth to charitable organizations throughout their lifetime or in their wills. The Pledge, however, is now facing a “billionaire backlash,” according to The New York Times.
Buffett wants people to know that the Giving Pledge is working as intended, even as it faces attacks.
“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,” the billionaire wrote in a recent email to The Times. “I have continued to contact possible members but only on a minor scale in recent years.”
