Bill Gates announced Thursday he will donate nearly his entire fortune — an estimated $200 billion — through his charitable foundation by 2045, and criticized fellow billionaire Elon Musk for deep cuts to U.S. foreign aid that Gates said will lead to millions of preventable deaths.
Gates, 69, said the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be closed on December 31, 2045, years earlier than originally planned, after spending the majority of his personal wealth. The announcement came during the foundation’s 25th anniversary.
The former Microsoft co-founder said the accelerated giving will support efforts to eliminate polio and malaria, reduce child and maternal mortality, and fight global poverty.
The foundation’s annual budget is expected to increase to $9 billion by 2026 and eventually reach $10 billion per year.
“There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people,” Gates wrote in a statement on the foundation’s website. “It’s unclear whether the world’s richest countries will continue to stand up for its poorest people.”
In interviews with Reuters and the Financial Times, Gates issued dire warnings about the potential consequences of shrinking public investment in global health, saying recent budget cuts could reverse decades of progress.
“The number of deaths will start going up for the first time... it’s going to be millions more deaths because of the resources,” Gates told Reuters, predicting a sharp rise in global mortality over the next four to six years.
Much of Gates’ criticism was aimed at Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who now oversees the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) through his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Gates accused Musk of overseeing cuts that will slash up to 80% of USAID’s programs — an agency that spent $44 billion globally in 2023.
“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Gates said.
Musk, in a post on his X social media platform, responded by calling Gates “a huge liar.”
Gates is a huge liar
— gorklon rust (@elonmusk) May 8, 2025
His representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Gates said he no longer sees room for compromise and is instead appealing to Congress to safeguard international aid funding.
Gates and Musk have had a strained relationship in recent years. Once publicly aligned in their belief that billionaires should give away their wealth to solve global problems, the two have clashed repeatedly over public health, philanthropy, and climate change.
Gates acknowledged that even with the foundation’s deep pockets, it cannot replace the role of government.
He said U.S. support remains essential to efforts like eradicating polio, where gaps in funding cannot be bridged by philanthropy alone.
He praised some African nations for reallocating local budgets to cover health shortfalls, but warned the global funding gap remains too large.
Since its creation in 2000, the Gates Foundation has committed $100 billion, with major investments in global vaccine distribution (such as Gavi), infectious disease prevention, and health systems.
Gates, who founded the foundation with his then-wife Melinda French Gates, said the final amount the foundation will spend depends on market conditions and inflation, but the intention is to give away 99% of his fortune, currently estimated at $108 billion.
Gates noted that his original plan had been to have the foundation wind down in the decades after his death, but he now believes the challenges of the present demand immediate action.
“The world does have values. That’s what my parents taught me,” Gates said.
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