Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has announced plans to donate nearly all of his $200 billion fortune, keeping just 1%—around $1.6 billion—for himself and his family. He also revealed that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will permanently shut down on December 31, 2045.
In a post published Thursday on his blog Gates Notes, the Microsoft co-founder explained his motivation:
“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. “There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people.”
Gates said this marks a shift from the foundation’s original plan, which was to operate several decades after his and Melinda French Gates’s deaths. But with input from the board, he now believes their goals can be achieved sooner through more focused and accelerated giving.
“This is a change from our original plans,” he wrote. “I now believe we can achieve the foundation’s goals on a shorter timeline—especially if we double down on key investments and give partners greater certainty.”
Founded in 2000, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has spent over $100 billion on global health, education, and poverty alleviation. Gates highlighted major milestones, including helping to launch Gavi and the Global Fund, both of which have helped save over 80 million lives by delivering vaccines and treatments for diseases like HIV and malaria. The foundation also contributed to polio eradication efforts and helped develop a rotavirus vaccine that has reduced child deaths from diarrhea by 75%.
Though widely praised, the foundation has faced criticism from some who argue Gates holds too much influence over global health priorities. Still, Gates defended his approach in an interview with the Associated Press, stating, “Like any private citizen, I can choose how to spend the money I earn.”
Daily Mail reports that the remaining 1% of Gates’s fortune may eventually go to his three children—Jennifer, Rory, and Phoebe.
“I think 20 years is the right balance,” Gates said, “between giving as much as we can to make progress on these things and giving people a lot of notice that this money will be gone.”
Wow. what a humble man he is