Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has pledged to donate nearly all of his wealth by 2045, totalling $200bn, to enhance the lives of the world’s poorest people.
The donation of the billionaire followed Elon Musk’s support for sharp U.S. foreign aid cuts. Bill slammed Musk, a key figure in President Donald Trump’s administration and accused him of “killing the world’s poorest children” with huge cuts to the United States’ aid budget.
He added that his foundation would share the massive sum over the next two decades, as part of his plan to “give away virtually all his wealth, hinting that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would close on December 31, 2045.
“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Gates told the Financial Times.
The Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency has led to the decimation of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which has previously provided billions in funding for everything from vaccines for children to emergency food assistance.
Gates and Musk once agreed over the role of the wealthy in giving away money, but have since clashed several times.
Gates said he was speeding up plans to divest his fortune and close the Gates Foundation on December 31, 2045.
“People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them. There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people,” the 69-year-old billionaire Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist wrote in a post on his website.
In his statement marking the 25th anniversary of the foundation, Bill said he wanted to help stop newborn babies, children and mothers dying of preventable causes, end diseases like polio, malaria and measles, and reduce poverty.
“It’s unclear whether the world’s richest countries will continue to stand up for its poorest people,” Gates added, noting cuts from major donors including Britain and France alongside the United States, the world’s biggest donor.
“I have come a long way since I was just a kid starting a software company with my friend from middle school,” he said.
Bill Gates foundation
Since its inception, the foundation has given away $100 billion, helping to save millions of lives and backing initiatives like the vaccine group Gavi and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Gates, who is valued at around $108 billion today, expects the foundation to spend around $200 billion by 2045, with the final figure dependent on markets and inflation.
The foundation is already a huge player in global health, with an annual budget that will reach $9 billion by 2026.
However, it has faced criticism for its outsize power and influence in the sector without requisite accountability, including at the World Health Organisation, making Gates himself also subject to conspiracy theories, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I hope other wealthy people consider how much they can accelerate progress for the world’s poorest if they increase the pace and scale of their giving, because it is such a profoundly impactful way to give back to society,” Gates said.
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