Do we like them?Do we like Warren Buffett?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Decent and generous for decades, held back by Berkshire's coal-friendly utilities and his silence on LGBTQ+ issues, which means we can't say more.
Buffett was born in Omaha in 1930, the son of a stockbroker who later became a congressman. He bought his first shares at 11, ran a paper route and a racing tip sheet at 13, and made money from pinball machines as a teenager. He studied under Benjamin Graham at Columbia, started a partnership in 1956 and had control of Berkshire Hathaway by 1965.
No career that long is spotless. In 2024 Berkshire's HomeServices real estate arm settled for $250 million after sellers accused the industry of keeping commissions artificially high and a jury awarded $1.78 billion in damages. HomeServices called the settlement its own obligation and did not address the allegations in the report we read, and Buffett himself was not a defendant.
On the harm check, we found no cruel words from him about LGBTQ+ people, women or migrants, and we found nothing at all from him on trans issues, so that is a gap, not a pass. He called Trump's tariffs “an act of war, to some degree” and said the “tooth fairy doesn't pay 'em”. On climate he wrote that it “poses a major problem for the planet”, yet he opposed activist emissions proposals at Berkshire.
That's where the asterisk comes from. Berkshire's utilities own a chunk of US wind and solar, but the 2016 reporting also found its railway hauled plenty of coal and a Berkshire utility backed higher rooftop solar fees in Nevada. Buffett said Berkshire wasn't against net metering and that the old fee structure cost most customers money.
The fresh bit is Gates. Buffett told CNBC he hasn't talked to Bill Gates since the Epstein links came out, said he never met Epstein, and added he “could get called as a witness”. He also said “I'll wait and see what unfolds” on any more money for the Gates Foundation, though he doesn't regret what he's given.
The giving is the real stuff. In June 2025 he handed over about $6 billion in Berkshire stock to five foundations, part of a pledge he made nearly 20 years ago. In November he moved another $1.3 billion to four family foundations, and Greg Abel took over as CEO at the start of 2026.