Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced on Thursday, the 8th of May, that he plans to give away 99% of his vast fortune through his charitable foundation by 2045 and attacked Elon Musk, accusing the world’s richest man of “killing the world’s poorest children”, according to Reuters and the British broadcaster BBC.
Gates’ statement follows the Trump administration’s moves to cut the international aid budget used to tackle deadly diseases and hunger.
“When I die, people will say a lot of things about me, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them,” he wrote on his blog on Thursday.
Gates, 69, said his foundation had already committed 100 billion US dollars to health and development projects and that he expected it to commit another 200 billion dollars over the next two decades, depending on the market and inflation.
Gates said he believes this money will help achieve several of his goals, such as eradicating diseases like polio and malaria, ending preventable deaths of women and children and reducing global poverty.
In his blog post, Gates quoted an 1889 essay by tycoon Andrew Carnegie, “The Gospel of Wealth”, which argued that rich people have a duty to give their wealth back to society.
Gates quoted Carnegie as writing, “A man who dies thus rich dies in disgrace.”
BY GIVING AWAY 99% OF HIS WEALTH, GATES COULD STILL REMAIN A BILLIONAIRE – ACCORDING TO BLOOMBERG, THE MICROSOFT FOUNDER IS THE FIFTH RICHEST PERSON IN THE WORLD WITH A NET WORTH OF 108 BILLION US DOLLARS.
In a blog post, he showed a timeline of his wealth, showing his current worth (108 billion US dollars) and a big hand-drawn arrow, which drops to almost zero by 2045.
He has claimed to have been inspired to donate by investor Warren Buffett and other philanthropists, but critics of his foundation argue that Gates is using his foundation status to avoid paying taxes and that it has an undue influence on the global health care system.
Gates earlier also accused the billionaire Musk of killing children by cutting US aid through measures taken by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Gates told the Financial Times.
Under Musk, the US plans to cut USAID programmes by around 80%. USAID spent 44 billion US dollars worldwide in 2023.
In an interview with Reuters, Gates warned that as governments around the world cut funding, decades of progress in reducing mortality would be dramatically reversed, with deaths rising by millions in the next 4-6 years.
“It is unclear whether the world’s richest countries will continue to stand up for their poorest citizens,” he wrote on his blog. “But if we can guarantee anything, it is that the Gates Foundation will support efforts to help people and countries out of poverty throughout its lifetime.”
He told Reuters that over the next 20 years, governments would eventually focus on improving the livelihoods of children.