Certain aspects of Bill Gates’ behavior hurt Warren Buffett who is known for his love of lean and efficient operations free of bureaucracy.Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ friendship started in 1991 when Mary Gates, the mother of Microsoft billionaire convinced him to spend the July 4 holiday at Hood Cana where he met Warren Buffett. Bill Gates, at the time, told his mother that he did not want to meet a “stockbroker” like Warren Buffett but once they met, the “two men hit it off immediately”, a report claimed.

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett (R) talks to Microsoft founder Bill Gates as they play Bridge during the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting weekend.(Reuters)

The duo has been very close friends since then and Bill Gates has described this as an “unbelievable friendship” while Warren Buffett has said earlier, “The moral of that is, listen to your mother.” The billionaires have a bond over their mutual love of bridge, business, problem solving and philanthropy, New York Times reported.

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In 2004, Bill Gates joined the board of directors of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway. In March 2020, Bill Gates said he would step down from the boards of both Berkshire and Microsoft to focus more on his philanthropy.

“But, even as their relationship blossomed, there remained some striking differences, most notably in how they displayed the trappings of their enormous wealth,” the report claimed.

Warren Buffett owned only a single vacation property in Laguna Beach California in addition to his modest home in Omaha, he has a 6.25 per cent interest in a Falcon 2000 operated by NetJets. Talking about his wealth, he once said, “And that’s about it.”

But certain aspects of Bill Gates’ behavior hurt Warren Buffett, the report claimed citing people in the know. It noted, “Buffett — known for his love of lean and efficient operations free of bureaucracy — had been bothered by what he saw as the bloat and inflated operating costs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the entity started in 2000 by Gates and his former wife, which is now known as the Gates Foundation.”

This led to Warren Buffett’s decision that following his death the remainder of his fortune — worth more than $100 billion — wouldn’t go to the Gates Foundation, the report added.

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