Bill Gates has pledged to donate nearly all of his personal fortune over the next two decades, stating that approximately $200 billion will be directed towards the world’s poorest through his foundation.
Gates, now 69, announced he is accelerating plans to divest his fortune and will shut down the Gates Foundation on December 31, 2045.
“People will say many things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them,” the Microsoft co-founder wrote in a post on his website. “There are far too many urgent problems in the world for me to hold on to resources that could be helping others.”
Gates made the announcement on the 25th anniversary of the Gates Foundation, which he co-founded with his then-wife Melinda French Gates in 2000. Warren Buffett later joined as a major contributor.
“I’ve come a long way since I was a kid starting a software company with a middle-school friend,” Gates reflected.
Bill Gates, now 69, co-founded Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen and is considered a pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. His current net worth is over 11,500 crore US dollar and is one of the greatest living philanthropists.
In a statement, Gates also criticised Elon Musk – the world’s richest man and a prominent figure in President Donald Trump’s administration – accusing him of “killing the world’s poorest children” by overseeing sweeping cuts to the US foreign aid budget.
“The image of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Gates told the Financial Times. He laid the blame on Musk’s leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency, which he said had gutted the US Agency for International Development (USAID), historically a major funder of global health initiatives, childhood vaccines and emergency food assistance.
Gates and Musk were once aligned on the importance of philanthropy among the ultra-wealthy, but have since clashed repeatedly.
In what amounted to a veiled rebuke of Trump’s administration, Gates said he aimed to reduce poverty and prevent the deaths of newborns, children and mothers from preventable causes. He also pledged continued support to eradicate diseases such as polio, malaria and measles.
“It’s uncertain whether the world’s richest countries will continue to support the poorest,” Gates said, noting cuts in aid from the US, UK and France – traditionally among the world’s largest donors. Gates warned that philanthropy alone cannot replace government action.
Since its launch, the foundation has distributed $100 billion, supporting initiatives such as the vaccine alliance Gavi and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Gates said the foundation would spend approximately 99% of his wealth before closing, with the final total subject to market conditions and inflation. Current estimates suggest around $200 billion will be disbursed by 2045.
