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Bill Gates has announced an accelerated timeline for giving away his vast fortune, highlighting artificial intelligence as a game-changer with the potential to boost public health and save lives globally. The Microsoft co-founder published a chart showing his net worth plummeting 99 percent over the next 20 years, signaling a doubling of the pace of his philanthropic giving.
Under a new timetable, the Gates Foundation will spend more than $200 billion over the next 20 years, shutting down in 2045. The organization had originally planned to close 20 years after Gates' death.
The announcement came as Gates took aim at another billionaire tech titan, Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO pushed through draconian cuts to the US Agency for International Development because Musk "didn't go to a party that weekend," Gates told the New York Times in an apparent dig at Musk's lifestyle.
Gates is listed as the 13th on the Forbes "real-time" billionaire list, with a net worth of $112.6 billion. Musk is first with $383.2 billion. "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," Gates wrote.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation launched in 2000, the same year Bill Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft. In 2024, Melinda French Gates exited the foundation three years after the couple's divorce. The organization, which had more than $71 billion in assets at the end of 2023, has been credited with helping to reshape the world of global public health.
It lists five offices throughout Africa, in addition to locations in the United States, Europe, China, India and the Middle East. Gates cited progress in health efforts including campaigns to eradicate polio and the creation of a new vaccine for rotavirus that has helped reduce the number of children who die from diarrhea each year by 75 percent.
Separate from the Gates Foundation, the Microsoft founder said he plans to continue to provide funding for initiatives to expand access to affordable energy and for breakthrough research into Alzheimer’s disease.
