Bill Gates has announced he will give away 99 percent of his immense fortune in the coming years – leaving one percent for himself and his children.
The tech mogul is shuttering the Gates Foundation by December 31, 2045, effectively ending a lifelong project to give away his multi-billion fortune.
He announced Thursday that he plans to distribute ‘virtually all’ of his wealth, approximately $200 billion, within the next 20 years.
The Gates Foundation, which Gates founded in 2000 along with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates, who left the organization after her divorce with the Microsoft billionaire, pours billions of dollars every year into health, foreign aid and other public assistance programs.
Gates will hold onto just one percent of his wealth – which still equals out to an estimated $1.62 billion.
He has three adult children he shares with Melinda – Phoebe, Rory, and Jennifer – whom will most likely inherit the remaining millions in cash Gates has upon his death.
Following the announcement, he said: ‘It’s kind of thrilling to have that much to be able to put into these causes.’
His announcement signals both a promise of sustained support to those causes, particularly global health and education in the US, and an eventual end to the foundation’s immense worldwide influence.
The tech mogul is shuttering the Gates Foundation by December 31, 2045, effectively ending a lifelong project to give away his multi-billion fortune
He has three adult children he shares with Melinda French Gates – Phoebe, Rory, and Jennifer – whom will most likely inherit the remaining millions in cash Gates has upon his death
Gates said spending down his fortune will help save and improve many lives now, which will have positive ripple effects well beyond the foundation’s closure.
It also makes it more likely that his intentions are honored.
‘I think 20 years is the right balance between giving as much as we can to make progress on these things and giving people a lot of notice that now this money will be gone,’ Gates said.
The Gates Foundation has long been peerless among foundations – attracting supporters and detractors but also numerous unfounded conspiracy theories.
In addition to the $100 billion it has spent since its founding 25 years ago, it has directed scientific research, helped develop new technologies, and nurtured long-term partnerships with countries and companies.
A massive 41 percent of the foundation’s cash has come from billionaire investor Warren Buffet, who himself has pledged to donate 99 percent or more of his nearly $160 billion net worth to charity when he passes away.
The rest of the foundation’s money comes from Gates’ profits from Microsoft, the tech company he founded and spent years directing as CEO before his retirement in 2000, the same year he dedicated himself to philanthropy.
As a key funder for health initiatives around the world, Gates was a prominent voice in the media during the COVID-19 pandemic urging people to get vaccinated.
Warren Buffett, like Gates, has pledged to donate 99 percent or more of his nearly $160 billion net worth to charity when he passes away
Some have criticized him for having an outsized influence on which programs get funded or which people get crucial help, but Gates has responded that he is a private citizen and is allowed to spend his money however he wants.
‘Is that a bad thing? It’s not an important cause? People can criticize it,’ Gates told the Associated Press, stressing that the foundation will continue fund nonprofits it deems worthy.
The foundation planned to wind down two decades after whenever Gates died, but now, it has a defined stop date at the end of 2045.
Gates, who is now 69, said he will remained engaged for as long as he can, but acknowledged he may not carry a leading role forever.
In its last two decades, the foundation will maintain a budget of around $9 billion per year, allowing it to spend more now than if it had to stay around longer, as was the original plan.
‘If we were trying to be a forever foundation, instead of being able to spend $9 billion a year, we’d have to drop down to spending like $6 billion a year,’ Gates told The New York Times Magazine.
There’s also some indication that the U-turn from Gates has been influenced by Donald Trump returning to the White House in January and giving Elon Musk unprecedented control over how the federal government spends on critical aid to struggling countries.
In February, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency effectively shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and tossed out all its workers.
Gates said of Elon Musk: ‘The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one’
Melinda Gates also commented on her ex-husband’s decision to move up the timeline, simply saying it was ‘Bill’s decision to make with the board of trustees’
Gates has been highly critical of the move and frequently references reports of food that were destined to be sent to at-risk countries being left to spoil in warehouses.
‘The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,’ Gates told the Financial Times.
Even though spending is set to rise from the Gates Foundation over the next twenty years, Gates said private philanthropy will not cover the hole left by the closure of USAID, which had an annual budget of $44 billion.
In its heyday, USAID ran food aid, disaster relief and disease prevention programs in over 100 countries.
Gates has also criticized the Trump administration for appointing Robert F. Kennedy, a notable vaccine skeptic, as the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Melinda Gates was formerly an equal partner with her ex-husband on the Gates Foundation and actually stayed on for three years after her split with him.
But in June 2024, she made the shock decision to leave possibly the most influential charity in the world to spend more time at her own organization, Pivotal Ventures, to specifically help women and girls.
When it comes to the Gates Foundation being wound down earlier than expected, Melinda told the Associated Press that ‘the timeline was Bill’s decision to make with the board of trustees.’
‘I like to think that right now, the foundation’s work is contributing to a child getting a vaccine or a woman opening her first bank account — and that decades from now, their families and communities are going to continue to look different, because of what that child and that woman unlocked for the people around them,’ she said.
