Bill Gates pledges to give away his wealth and close his foundation

Bill Gates has made an ‘urgent’ decision concerning the future of his foundation and more than $200 billion in spending. See what he said.

The Gates Foundation plans to spend more than $200 billion (A$311bn) over the next 20 years, accelerating its public health mission and shutting down in 2045, the organisation said Thursday.

The new timetable means a change to the organisation’s charter, which planned for the foundation to sunset 20 years after the death of Bill Gates.

The shift is driven by “urgency and opportunity,” as artificial intelligence advances boost the potential for human wellbeing even as governments cut back on aid funding, the foundation said.

“During the first 25 years of the Gates Foundation - powered in part by the generosity of Warren Buffett - we gave away more than $100 billion (A$156bn),” Gates, 69, said in a blog post, referring to the influential American investor.

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates is giving away his fortune. Picture: AFP

“Over the next two decades, we will double our giving,” Gates wrote. The blog post contained a chart showing Gates’s net worth plummeting 99 per cent over the next 20 years. Gates is currently listed as the 13th on the Forbes “real-time” billionaire list, with a net worth of $112.6 billion (A$175bn).

“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.”

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.

Bill Gates and Melinda Gates. Picture: AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File

Gates cited progress in launching global public 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 diarrhoea each year by 75 per cent.

“By accelerating our giving, my hope is we can put the world on a path to ending preventable deaths of moms and babies and lifting millions of people out of poverty,” Gates said in the blog.

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.

Originally published as Bill Gates pledges to give away his wealth and close his foundation