Gates Foundation Trust committed nearly 30% of its $36,583,755,044 reported 13F portfolio to a single stock at the end of the third quarter of 2025: Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares. The position, worth $10,942,248,714 across 21,765,224 shares, represents the largest holding in a trust that serves as the investment arm behind one of the world’s biggest philanthropic organizations. That level of concentration in a single equity tells a story about conviction, risk tolerance, and a decades-long relationship between Bill Gates and Warren Buffett that continues to shape billions of dollars in capital allocation.
A $10.9 Billion Bet on Berkshire Hathaway
The scale of the Gates Foundation Trust’s Berkshire position becomes clearer when set against the full portfolio. The trust’s 13F holdings table for the quarter ended September 30, 2025, lists Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Class B as the top holding at $10,942,248,714 in market value. The total reported value across all positions was $36,583,755,044, according to the quarterly cover sheet filed November 14, 2025. Simple division puts the Berkshire stake at roughly 29.9% of the entire portfolio, underscoring how central the conglomerate has become to the trust’s financial footing.
That kind of single-stock concentration stands out for a foundation trust of this size. Many large institutional investors spread equity risk across dozens or hundreds of names to mitigate the impact of any one company’s missteps. The Gates Foundation Trust does hold other positions, but none rival the Berkshire allocation in either dollar value or portfolio weight. For context, 21,765,224 Class B shares represent a sizable position in Berkshire itself, a conglomerate with a market capitalization that ranks among the largest in the world. The trust is not simply parking money in an index fund or a diversified basket. It is making a deliberate, outsized wager on a single company run by a single investment philosophy, effectively tying a large share of its philanthropic firepower to Berkshire’s long-term performance.
Why Berkshire Remains Buffett’s Signature Vehicle
Berkshire Hathaway’s own quarterly SEC filing, a Form 13F report for the same period, offers a window into the equity portfolio that Gates is effectively buying into. Buffett’s team has long favored concentrated positions in companies with durable earnings power, and the third-quarter filing reflected continued adjustments rather than stasis. The Associated Press reported that Berkshire trimmed its Apple holdings, adjusted its Bank of America position, and opened a new stake in the New York Times publisher, a move that came six years after Buffett sold all of his newspaper holdings. These shifts suggest Berkshire’s portfolio managers are actively reshaping the equity book in response to evolving opportunities, not simply sitting on legacy positions accumulated in prior decades.
Owning Berkshire Class B shares is not the same as owning Apple or Coca-Cola directly. It is a bet on the entire Berkshire ecosystem: the insurance float that funds investments, the railroad operations, the energy utilities, the manufacturing and retail businesses, and the public equity portfolio all rolled into one vehicle. By concentrating nearly 30% of the trust’s assets in this single stock, the trust is effectively leaning on Berkshire’s capital allocation framework. That framework has historically favored cash generation, conservative balance sheets, and a margin-of-safety mindset over momentum-driven growth, a posture that looks notably different from the AI-fueled rally and speculative pockets that have dominated equity markets in recent years. For a philanthropic trust seeking steady, long-term returns to fund grants, Berkshire’s diversified operating base and disciplined investment style may be as important as its past performance.
A Trust Renamed, a Strategy Unchanged
The entity behind these filings underwent a formal name change earlier in 2025. A Schedule 13G notice notes that effective January 6, 2025, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust changed its name to Gates Foundation Trust. The filing reflects the renaming, but the legal and reporting framework for the trust remained intact. Despite the new name, the investment strategy visible in the 13F filings shows continuity rather than disruption. The Berkshire position has been a fixture of the trust’s portfolio for years, and the latest filing confirms it remains the anchor holding around which other investments are built.
The EDGAR submission summary confirms the filing date of November 14, 2025, and the report period of September 30, 2025, underscoring that these documents are backward-looking snapshots. Form 13F reports list positions as of the quarter’s end, not a running ledger of trades. The trust could have bought or sold shares between quarters without those transactions appearing until the next disclosure. Still, the sheer size of the Berkshire position, at nearly $11 billion, makes it unlikely that the trust dramatically altered its exposure between reporting periods without leaving a trace in subsequent filings. A stake of that magnitude typically takes time to build and may be difficult to unwind quickly without signaling a strategic shift, so the concentration seen at the end of the third quarter likely reflects a deliberate, sustained allocation rather than a fleeting trade.
Concentration Risk or Calculated Confidence
The most common criticism of a portfolio this concentrated is straightforward: if Berkshire stumbles, the trust absorbs a disproportionate loss. A 10% decline in Berkshire Class B shares would erase roughly $1.1 billion in value from the trust’s portfolio, a hit that would be far smaller if the same capital were spread across a broader set of holdings. Foundation trustees typically face pressure to diversify precisely because their beneficiaries depend on stable, long-term funding streams that should not be overly exposed to the fortunes of any one company. The Gates Foundation Trust’s willingness to maintain this level of exposure suggests its managers view Berkshire’s diversified business model as a form of built-in hedging, even if the equity itself trades under a single ticker and is reported as one line item on the 13F.
There is a counterargument that deserves scrutiny. Proponents of the trust’s approach would argue that diversification across businesses inside Berkshire may be more meaningful than diversification across tickers in a conventional equity portfolio. Berkshire owns or controls dozens of operating subsidiaries spanning insurance, transportation, energy, industrials, and consumer products, alongside a sizable portfolio of marketable securities. From that perspective, the Gates Foundation Trust is not betting on a narrow, single-product company but on a sprawling conglomerate with multiple revenue streams and a long record of disciplined capital allocation. The trust’s filings show that its managers are comfortable treating Berkshire as a core, quasi-foundational asset, relying on its internal diversification and Buffett’s framework to balance risk and return, even as they accept the headline risk that comes with having nearly a third of the portfolio tied to one stock.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
Grant Mercer covers market dynamics, business trends, and the economic forces driving growth across industries. His analysis connects macro movements with real-world implications for investors, entrepreneurs, and professionals. Through his work at The Daily Overview, Grant helps readers understand how markets function and where opportunities may emerge.
