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Financier Warren Buffett announced this week he will give away $37.4 billion of his $44 billion fortune, with $31 billion going in annual installments to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. When the gift of shares in Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is fully paid out, it will double the size of the Gates Foundation and elevate Buffett into the ranks of mega-philanthropists such as John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. Buffett had earlier indicated his charitable bequests would begin after his death, but this week he said his admiration for the Gates Foundation convinced him to “get going” now. Buffett’s friend and fellow billionaire Bill Gates says the money will “deepen and accelerate” efforts to eradicate malaria and AIDS and strengthen inner-city U.S. schools.
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