Bill Gates Accelerates Philanthropy, Criticizes Musk, and Embraces AI in Global Health

What to Know About Bill Gates's Plans to Shut Down the Gates Foundation

On Thursday, Bill Gates announced a new, faster timeline to give away his fortune -- and close the doors of the Gates Foundation, one of the world's leading global-health philanthropies. Over two days last week, he spoke to me for an exclusive interview to explain his decision -- and why it made sense to him, at a critical moment in public health, when the Trump administration's steep cuts to foreign aid have thrown many global-health priorities into jeopardy. Here are some of the key takeaways from that conversation. Before the foundation shuts down in 2045, Gates has committed to it spending $200 billion, beginning now. All told, the foundation has spent $100 billion over 25 years. It now intends to double that over the next two decades, focusing on three key goals: that "no mom, child or baby dies of a preventable cause"; that "the next generation grows up in a world without deadly infectious diseases"; and that "hundreds of millions of people break free from poverty, putting more countries on a path to prosperity." These are astronomically ambitious goals, but Gates and his team believe they can be achieved in a compressed timeline -- just 20 years, instead of an original vision that would have lasted for decades longer -- and he is pouring nearly all of his remaining fortune into making it happen. In the next 20 years, Gates believes, progress will be 'incredible.' "This is a miraculous time," he told me, with the most exciting work the foundation has ever done sitting in the R.&D. pipeline now, waiting to be delivered. Trump Administration: Live Updates Updated May 8, 2025, 4:23 a.m. ET4 hours ago Britain's leader has courted Trump. It could pay off with a trade deal.Here's what happened on Wednesday.The National Archives released more Robert F. Kennedy files. It was almost hard to keep up with his survey of breakthroughs: on H.I.V., on tuberculosis, but also on more obscure and neglected diseases like lymphatic filariasis and visceral leishmaniasis. He predicts that maternal-mortality rates in the developing world could be brought into rough parity with those in the rich world, and that childhood deaths could be cut in half. But in the short term, Gates predicts that childhood mortality will increase in Trump's term -- and not by a little. Given the various cuts imposed by the Trump administration, Gates says he expects childhood mortality to go up by a million additional deaths per year. He was stunned by the breadth of the foreign-aid cuts and puts future childhood deaths in Elon Musk's hands. "The world's richest man has been involved in the deaths of the world's poorest children," Gates told me, exhibiting a rare burst of real anger about the cuts to U.S.A.I.D. "He put it in the wood chipper, because he didn't go to a party that weekend." Those cuts, he says, were much larger than he anticipated: I thought there'd be, like, a 20 percent cut. Instead, right now, it's like an 80 percent cut. And yes, I did not expect that. I don't think anybody expected that. Nobody expected the executive branch to cut PEPFAR or polio money without the involvement of Congress. What's going on with H.I.V. research and trial networks, I didn't expect that either. It isn't just America: Other leaders of rich nations are squeezing their aid budgets. "Take Keir Starmer," Gates told me. A day before he's supposed to fly and see Trump, and he's like, Oh, my God, I've got to show that we're serious about defense spending. He's in some meetings saying, OK, how do I increase defense spending from 2.1 percent to 2.3 percent? And somebody says, We could cut the aid budget from 0.5 percent to 0.3 percent. Nobody says, Hey, what about those kids who won't get vaccines? Gates calls A.I. a 'magic wand.' Throughout our conversation, he returned again and again to the promises of A.I. -- not just in the area of drug discovery, but as part of a better delivery mechanism, to make sure that those in need can actually access the world's most powerful tools. "The way to think of A.I. is that it's essentially free intelligence," he says, "and in no sense does that mean it will naturally be made available to people in poor countries." But if it is made available? "It's incredible what we will be able to do."

Bill Gates speeds up giving away fortune, blasts Musk

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates announced Thursday an accelerated timeframe for giving away his fortune as he touted artificial intelligence as a game-changer to boost public health and save lives globally. 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. Gates, 69, published a chart showing his net worth plummeting 99% over the next 20 years in a blog post announcing the shift, describing a doubling of the pace of giving. "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%. 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. Not a 'forever' foundation In the blog post, Gates credited the writings of 19th-century US steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, whose foundation is still around. But Gates told the New York Times he had no designs on creating a "forever" foundation out of "some weird legacy thing," preferring to pump out billions more to take advantage of emerging technologies. "The tools are so phenomenal," he said of the potential for AI in global health. "All the intelligence will be in the AI, and so you will have a personal doctor that's as good as somebody who has a full-time dedicated doctor -- that's actually better than even what rich countries have," Gates told the New York Times. While private foundations can do a lot, Gates described the government role as essential, ruing deep budget cuts by the United States, Britain, France and other countries. "It's unclear whether the world's richest countries will continue to stand up for its poorest people. But the one thing we can guarantee is that, in all of our work, the Gates Foundation will support efforts to help people and countries pull themselves out of poverty," he wrote. The moves have included the assault on USAID by Musk's "Department of Government Efficiency" in Donald Trump's presidential administration. Gates called the cuts "stunning," far more severe than expected. Musk is "the one who cut the USAID budget," Gates told the New York Times. "He put it in the wood chipper." In an interview with the Financial Times, Gates ridiculed Musk's apparent confusion of Gaza Province in Mozambique with Gaza in the Middle East as the Trump administration targeted programs. "The picture of the world's richest man killing the world's poorest children is not a pretty one," Gates said of Musk in an interview with the Financial Times.

Bill Gates speeds up giving away fortune, blasts Musk

New York (AFP) - Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates announced Thursday an accelerated timeframe for giving away his fortune as he touted artificial intelligence as a game-changer to boost public health and save lives globally. 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. Gates, 69, published a chart showing his net worth plummeting 99 percent over the next 20 years in a blog post announcing the shift, describing a doubling of the pace of giving. "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. Not a 'forever' foundation In the blog post, Gates credited the writings of 19th-century US steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, whose foundation is still around. But Gates told the New York Times he had no designs on creating a "forever" foundation out of "some weird legacy thing," preferring to pump out billions more to take advantage of emerging technologies. "The tools are so phenomenal," he said of the potential for AI in global health. "All the intelligence will be in the AI, and so you will have a personal doctor that's as good as somebody who has a full-time dedicated doctor -- that's actually better than even what rich countries have," Gates told the New York Times. While private foundations can do a lot, Gates described the government role as essential, ruing deep budget cuts by the United States, Britain, France and other countries. "It's unclear whether the world's richest countries will continue to stand up for its poorest people. But the one thing we can guarantee is that, in all of our work, the Gates Foundation will support efforts to help people and countries pull themselves out of poverty," he wrote. The moves have included the assault on USAID by Musk's "Department of Government Efficiency" in Donald Trump's presidential administration. Gates called the cuts "stunning," far more severe than expected. Musk is "the one who cut the USAID budget," Gates told the New York Times. "He put it in the wood chipper." In an interview with the Financial Times, Gates ridiculed Musk's apparent confusion of Gaza Province in Mozambique with Gaza in the Middle East as the Trump administration targeted programs. "The picture of the world's richest man killing the world's poorest children is not a pretty one," Gates said of Musk in an interview with the Financial Times.