Warren Buffett tumbles to his lowest ever position on the list of the world's richest people after a $2.9 billion charity donation

• Billionaire investor Warren Buffett donated $2.9 billion worth of Class B shares in his Berkshire Hathaway charity this week, taking his total philanthropic contributions to $37 billion in 14 years.
• The donation, however, has pushed him to his lowest ever position on Bloomberg's widely cited Billionaires Index.
• Buffett was overtaken on the list by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
• Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon is the world's richest man on the index, having gained $68 billion since the pandemic started

Famed investor Warren Buffett gifted about $2.9 billion worth of Class B shares in Berkshire Hathaway to charity this week, a move which has caused his total wealth ranking to tumble to eighth position on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

This is the lowest position the chief of Berkshire Hathaway has held on the Bloomberg Billionaires index, since 2012 when the index began.

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As recently as June, Buffett held fifth position, a sign that his charitable contributions are affecting his total net wealth.

Buffett donated almost 16 million shares to five philanthropic groups: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, The Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and NoVo Foundation, his company said Wednesday.

Billionaire technology executives such as Steve Balmer, former Microsoft CEO and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have overtaken Buffett, with six of the seven richest people on earth involved in the technology industry.

Bernard Arnault, the boss of luxury goods giant LVMH, is the only non-tech billionaire ahead of Buffett, ranking fourth with a net worth of $92 billion.

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, having added $68 billion to his fortunes in this year alone, partly thanks to a boom in Amazon's stock as shops closed and millions turned even more to online shopping.

Buffett said in his latest letter to shareholders that it would take at least 12-15 years for his estate to pass on all shares he owns in his business after his death.

The Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning think-tank also said that American billionaires had gained more than half a trillion dollars of wealth during the pandemic, and the country's racial financial gap has grown.