Bill Gates has announced his intention to donate almost his entire personal wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with the goal of deploying about 99 percent of the funds by 2045. At the end of this process, the foundation will be permanently closed. The philanthropic foundation–established in 2000–is one of the world’s largest, committed to global health, education and poverty alleviation. It promotes scientific research, distribution of vaccines and improvement of living conditions in the poorest countries.
In making his decision public, the former Microsoft CEO launched a scathing attack on Elon Musk, accusing him of “killing the world’s poorest children” as a result of the drastic cuts in international aid introduced by the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), a body established during Trump’s second tenure. According to sources close to the dossier, about 80 percent of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID ) programs are set to be eliminated.
“My foundation cannot fill the gaps left by governments,” Gates said, emphasizing the risk of millions of preventable deaths, especially among children, in the coming years due to lack of funding. Musk retorted harshly on X, calling Gates “a big liar.”
Gates recalled how, thanks to the foundation’s resources, important progress has been made in the fight against major diseases such as polio and malaria, as well as initiatives to reduce global poverty and prevent avoidable deaths among women and children.
He pointed out, however, that despite the substantial resources available, no lasting results can be achieved without the active involvement of governments. “There are too many pressing issues to be addressed for me to afford to withhold resources that could be used to help those in need,” he wrote in a post on his official website. “It is by no means a given that the richest countries in the world will continue to support the most vulnerable segments of the population.”
Gates also praised the response of some African governments to reduce the negative effects of the cuts, noting how they have been able to reallocate national budgets to partially offset the reduction in external funding. However, he added that without U.S. economic support, eradication of diseases such as polio will remain out of reach.
