Bill Gates has announced he will donate 99 per cent of his remaining fortune to the Gates Foundation, which is now set to shut down in 2045, significantly earlier than originally planned. Until then, the foundation will be drawing down its endowment and nearly all of Gates’s personal fortune, currently estimated at $107 billion.
The pledge ranks among the largest philanthropic commitments in history, surpassing the inflation-adjusted donations of industrialists like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. Only Warren Buffett’s plan to donate his USD 160 billion fortune, depending on market fluctuations, may ultimately be larger.
Gates’s donation will be distributed over time, enabling the foundation to spend an additional USD 200 billion over the next 20 years. “It’s kind of thrilling to have that much to be able to put into these causes,” Gates said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The announcement signals both a lasting commitment to the foundation’s central causes including global health and education in the US, and a definitive endpoint to its global influence. Gates believes that spending the money sooner will save and improve more lives, with ripple effects extending beyond the foundation’s eventual closure.
“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,” he said.
In contrast to most foundations that aim to operate indefinitely, often straying from their original missions, Gates emphasised the value of a fixed timeline. “Who knows how their work relates to the intent of the person who started that foundation?” he asked.
Originally, the foundation had planned to wind down two decades after Gates’s death. With this new plan, the timeline is significantly accelerated. Though Gates, now 69, plans to remain engaged, he acknowledged that he may not be actively involved when the foundation closes.
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The news comes at a time of rising scepticism toward foreign aid, particularly under the Trump administration, which has slashed funding for international programs. A study in The Lancet recently warned that cuts to PEPFAR, the US program for HIV and AIDS relief, could result in the deaths of 500,000 children by 2030. Nature estimated that an overall cessation of U.S. aid could lead to 25 million additional deaths over 15 years.
Gates also criticised Elon Musk, currently the world’s richest man and a key figure in President Trump’s administration, for supporting deep cuts to the US foreign aid budget.
“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Gates told the Financial Times.
“It’s unclear whether the world’s richest countries will continue to stand up for its poorest people,” he added, pointing to aid reductions by the U.S., Britain, and France – three of the world’s biggest donors.
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About 41 per cent of its funds have come from Warren Buffett; the remainder is from Gates’s Microsoft fortune. “Warren, it’s hard to overstate the impact he’s had on me,” Gates told AP.
The foundation was started by Bill and Melinda Gates French in 2000, but following the couple’s divorce in 2021, French Gates left to launch her own philanthropic organisation. Warren Buffett, meanwhile, recently announced he would leave most of his remaining fortune to a charitable trust managed by his children and would not give any further donations to the Gates Foundation after his death.
In its 25 years of existence, the foundation has helped shape global health policy and pioneered efforts to lower the cost of medical treatments for low- and middle-income countries. With the $100 billion it has already spent, it has funded scientific research, developed new technologies, and fostered long-term partnerships with governments and corporations.
“The foundation work has been way more impactful than I expected,” Gates said, describing it as his “second and final career.”
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One of its proudest achievements is the nearly 50 per cent drop in childhood deaths from preventable causes between 2000 and 2020, according to United Nations data. CEO Mark Suzman said the foundation does not claim sole credit for the success, but believes it played a “catalytic role,” particularly in vaccine delivery through Gavi, the alliance it helped launch.
Going forward, the foundation remains committed to eradicating polio, combating deadly diseases like malaria, and addressing child malnutrition.
Gates hopes that frontloading investment in these issues now will give future philanthropists the freedom to focus on emerging challenges. “Somebody should try and save more lives than I did, and give more money than I did,” he said.
The foundation will maintain an annual budget of about USD 9 billion, flattening out after years of growth since Buffett began contributing in 2006. Suzman said the foundation will likely tighten its focus to ensure maximum impact.
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“Having that time horizon and the resources just puts an even greater burden on us to say, Are you actually putting your resources, your thumb down, on what are going to be the biggest, most successful bets rather than scattering it too thinly?” he said, acknowledging that this shift has created internal uncertainty about which programs will continue.
Gates, for his part, remains clear about his legacy. “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,” he wrote on his website.
(With AP Inputs)
