Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, on Thursday, May 8, 2025, pledged to give away almost his entire personal wealth in the next two decades.
Gates said the world’s poorest would receive $200 billion via his foundation at a time when governments worldwide are slashing international aid.
He also hit out at the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, a key figure in the United States President Donald Trump’s administration, accusing him of “killing the world’s poorest children” with huge cuts to the U.S. aid budget.
“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Gates said.
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.
Report: Millions of children suffering over Trump aid cuts
In an implicit rebuke to Trump’s slashing of aid since returning to office in January, Gates’ statement 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.
Since inception, Gates 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.
It will close after it spends around 99% of his personal fortune, Reuters quoted Gates as saying.
The founders originally expected the foundation to wrap up in the decades after their deaths.
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.
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