Bill Gates pledges to give away nearly all of his $200 billion fortune, closes Gates Foundation by 2045

In a landmark move, tech billionaire Bill Gates announced that he will distribute nearly his entire personal fortune, estimated at about $200 billion, over the next 20 years, before officially closing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on December 31, 2045.

Founded in 2000 with the goal of lasting beyond the deaths of both founders, the Gates Foundation has long been one of the world’s largest philanthropic organizations, with more than $100 billion donated over the past two decades to global initiatives in health, education and poverty reduction. But Gates said he no longer wants to wait to hand over his vast fortune to drive urgent change.

"People can say all kinds of things about me after I die, but I will not let 'he died rich'. The world has too many problems to solve and I cannot afford to waste resources that could be used to help people," Gates wrote in a personal blog post on the morning of May 8.

Accelerating progress in solving global problems

Gates' announcement comes as the Gates Foundation's global health, education and aid programs, which are at the heart of its work, are facing cuts under the administration of former President Donald Trump.

Gates said he hopes this strong philanthropic commitment will create a model for global billionaires to share their wealth to address pressing human challenges.

The Gates Foundation's three priority goals for the remaining 20 years include: ending preventable maternal and newborn deaths, eliminating deadly infectious diseases, and lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.

Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman stressed at an event in New York that the organization is facing the 'most difficult political and economic challenges since its founding'. He warned that many medical and social advances are at risk, as global funding trends show signs of slowing.

Gates has also expressed deep concern about efforts to cut US aid. In an interview with the Financial Times, he even accused billionaire Elon Musk and his Ministry of Government Efficiency of “indirectly killing the world’s poorest children” through the impact of cuts in international health aid.

Gates said he met with President Donald Trump last February to protest the budget cuts to the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Philanthropy

Along with his wealth distribution plan, Gates expressed his belief that the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) will contribute to global progress, if properly exploited with effective funding.

Gates' current net worth is about $108 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, ranking him fifth in the world. The $200 billion that will be transferred over the next two decades will come from his existing $77 billion endowment, combined with his personal fortune and profits from ongoing investments, including TerraPower, the nuclear energy company he founded.

The announcement also comes just weeks after Microsoft, the company Gates co-founded, celebrated its 50th anniversary and surpassed $3 trillion in market capitalization. "I feel it is fitting to commit to giving away the wealth I have acquired through Microsoft," he wrote.

Meanwhile, Melinda French Gates, co-founder of the Gates Foundation, stepped down from the organization last year, after the couple announced their divorce in 2021. She said in 2022 that she would not transfer the majority of her wealth through the Gates Foundation, but would instead pursue her own philanthropic initiatives.

Gates' pledge to distribute his wealth has been called by many experts one of the boldest philanthropic moves in modern history, not only in its financial scale but also in its determination to drive systemic change in how the super-rich contribute to society.