How tech billionaires are turning on the Giving Pledge, promoted by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett; Peter Thiel says he privately told ~12 signers to undo it
Just a few months after Warren Buffett convened a series of high-end dinners across America to collect signatures for something called …
New York TimesTheodore Schleifer
Context & Ripple Effects
Tech philanthropy has long been framed as a major source of elite giving: industry figures accounted for a large share of top philanthropists' donations in 2014, and MacKenzie Bezos joined the Giving Pledge in 2019 alongside other technology leaders.
Giving Pledge signers approached by Thiel may reconsider a public commitment that depends on voluntary adherence rather than an enforceable obligation.
Gates and Buffett's pledge-building effort faces an immediate credibility test if prominent technology signers withdraw or publicly distance themselves from it.
Second-order effects
Charities and fundraisers cannot treat affiliation with the pledge as a reliable signal of future giving, increasing the importance of specific, documented commitments.
The split sharpens the contrast between voluntary philanthropy and tax-based redistribution, particularly as Thiel-linked political spending has targeted a wealth-tax proposal.
Third-order effects
If high-profile reversals continue, billionaire pledges could become less effective as reputational coordination tools and more vulnerable to ideological polarization.
The episode points to a broader contest over whether concentrated tech wealth should be directed through donor discretion or public policy—a question likely to shape the standing of elite philanthropy.
The trend: Tech leaders' philanthropy is becoming more politically contested, with voluntary wealth-giving commitments increasingly tested against debates over taxation and donor control.
We need more MacKenzie Scott in the world and a lot less Peter Thiel. “He has his own Epstein ties, but he calls the Pledge an ‘Epstein-adjacent, fake Boomer club.’”
This was painful to read. The decay of charitable giving is one of the clearest indications of a collapsing notion of a collective good we are all striving toward. Can we ever get it back?
“The value proposition has changed because the erosion of general trust, the polarization of everything... You're more likely to be criticized for giving large amounts of money away now than praised. That probably wasn't as true 15 years ago” https://x.com/...
I spent the last few months talking to people around The Giving Pledge about a bygone era of philanthropy. There is an attack campaign against the Pledge led by none other than Peter Thiel. My reported essay for NYT Sunday Business is out today. [image]
Consider the backpedaling by billionaires on The Giving Pledge a reminder that not only can't voluntary charity substitute for taxation, it was a scam to ever consider it an adequate substitute for taxation.
Philanthropy is never going to solve all our problems or replace taxes and good policy. But it seems bad that the very concept is now derided by the megarich www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/b...
A good piece from @teddyschleifer.bsky.social on the rise & fall of the Giving Pledge. This is a moment of exhaustion, cynicism & disillusionment wrt to large-scale giving. But I still think an imperfect set of philanthropic norms are better than none at all. — www.nytimes.co…
Peter Thiel is “strongly discouraging” fellow billionaires from signing the philanthropic Giving Pledge because the money will go to “left-wing nonprofits.” — Another Exit, Voice, Loyalty moment from tech ideologues. — www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/b...
It is undeniable that there is a) both extraordinary new concentrations of wealth and b) those benefiting don't want to share it any way. — The “Giving Pledge” was a nod to some form of social contract. Now, billionaires are walking away from it. — www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15…
As a trend story, this could have been recast as the ungenerous greed of the right-wing billionaire class. So tax them. — The Billionaire Backlash Against a Philanthropic Dream https://www.nytimes.com/...
the disillusionment with the giving pledge speaks to, i think, many billionaires not being very engaged with their giving and not really taking it seriously. there's bill gates and john arnold, but then everyone else seems to do philantroslop (universities, well known orgs etc)
Here's the trouble with just saying it's cool for billionaires to run things because billionaires: they start lobbying against insufficiently fascist philanthropy & also pretending “Left Behind” antichrist shit is now cutting edge philosophy for the intellectually stunted
I don't think Elon should give half his money to charities he doesn't control there's also no time in the past where (in hindsight) it would be better if he had Gates has done good but will struggle to spend down the money before he dies thiel is right about left-wing capture
So many of the nonprofits undermining our civilization were set up and funded by businessmen who'd be horrified by what they're doing today. No one should give them more power.
Peter Thiel tells me that he has had a dozen private conversations recently with signers of The Giving Pledge, encouraging them to “un-sign it.” [image]
Peter Thiel has a very Peter Thiel reaction to the Giving Pledge, but the underlying premise just does not hold up over time www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/b...