Warren Buffett has given almost half of his fortune to charity. He would still be $49 billion poorer than Jeff Bezos if he had kept it.

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Warren Buffett has given almost half of his fortune to charity. He would still be $49 billion poorer than Jeff Bezos if he had kept it.
Paul Morigi / Stringer / Getty Images

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  • Warren Buffett has gifted nearly half of his wealth to charitable causes.
  • If the famed investor had kept all 475,000 of his Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares, they would be worth about $129 billion today, making him the world's second-wealthiest person.
  • His fortune would still be almost $50 billion short of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' $178 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
  • Even at Berkshire's peak stock price in January, Buffett would have a $164 billion fortune and still be poorer than Bezos.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Warren Buffett has now donated almost half of his fortune to charity. Even if he had kept it, he would be nearly $50 billion poorer than Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

The famed investor has given away roughly 226,000 of his Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares, worth a little over $61 billion at the current stock price of $272,400.

He still owns around 249,000 or 52% of his Class A shares, currently worth about $68 billion — not far off his estimated net worth on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

If Buffett had held on to all 475,000 Class A shares, they would be valued at $129 billion today, assuming Berkshire's stock price wouldn't be affected by his lack of giving.

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A net worth of that size would catapult him from sixth place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index to second place, overtaking Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates and his $115 billion fortune.

However, Bezos is currently worth $178 billion, or $49 billion more than a theoretically stingy Buffett. Amazon stock has surged more than 60% this year, boosting Bezos' fortune by roughly the same proportion.

Even at Berkshire's peak Class A share price of about $345,000 in mid-January of this year, Buffett's shares would be worth around $164 billion — still about $14 billion shy of Bezos' net worth.

To be fair, Bezos' wealth would also be higher without his charitable contributions. However, he has been far quieter on the philanthropic front.

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The Amazon chief's most notable moves are launching a $2 billion fund focused on education programs for homeless people in 2018, and pledging $10 billion toward fighting climate change in February.

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