HQ Team
May 8, 2025: Billionaire Bill Gates will donate more than $200 billion over the next two decades to prevent newborn child and maternal deaths, combat infectious diseases, Alzheimer’s, and close down the Gates Foundation on December 31, 2045.
“During the first 25 years of the Gates Foundation, we gave away more than $100 billion,” Gates, Chair, Board Member of the Foundation, said in a statement. “Over the next two decades, we will double our giving.”
The United States, the United Kingdom, France, and other nations are cutting their aid budgets by tens of billions of dollars. “And no philanthropic organisation—even one the size of the Gates Foundation—can make up the gulf in funding that’s emerging right now,” he wrote on Gates Notes: ‘Last Chapter.’
“I will give away virtually all my wealth through the Gates Foundation over the next 20 years to the cause of saving and improving lives around the world. And on December 31, 2045, the foundation will close its doors permanently.”
Gates, ranked the fifth richest person in the world with a net worth of $168 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, said he would tunnel profits from his two companies — Breakthrough Energy and TerraPower — into the Foundation.
Three main goals
Over the next two decades Gates Foundation will focus on three main goals. The first would be to end all preventable child deaths, Gates, one of the founders of Microsoft Corporation, said.
“The innovation is there, the ability to measure progress is stronger than ever, and the world has the tools it needs to put all children on a good path,” Gates, whose Foundation helped set up the Gavi the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund, said.
“Together, Gavi and the Global Fund have saved more than 80 million lives so far.”
The second goal would be to find solutions for preventing and eradicating infectious diseases, where new treatments are in various stages of development.
“The key to maximising the impacts of these innovations will be lowering their costs to make them affordable everywhere, and I expect the Gates Foundation will play a big role in making that happen.
‘Health inequities’
“Health inequities are the reason the Gates Foundation exists. And the true test of our success will be whether we can ensure these life-saving interventions reach the people who need them most, particularly in Africa, South Asia, and across the Global South.”
Gates said Alzheimer’s was a growing crisis in the United States, and as life expectancies go up, it threatens to become a massive burden to both families and healthcare systems around the world.
“Fortunately, scientists are currently making amazing progress to slow and even stop the progression of this disease. I expect to keep supporting their efforts as long as it’s necessary.”
The final goal is to give children education and nutrition, support digital public infrastructure, and remove gender inequalities around the world.
“Half the world’s smallholder farmers are women, and women stand to gain the most when they have access to education, health care, and financial services,” the 70-year-old Gates said.
‘Give away resources’
“Left to their own devices, systems often leave women behind. But done right, they can help women lift their families and their communities. “
“It’s unclear whether the world’s richest countries will continue to stand up for their poorest people. But the one thing we can guarantee is that, in all of our work, the Gates Foundation will support efforts to help people and countries pull themselves out of poverty.
“There are just too many opportunities to lift people up for us not to take them,” Gates said.
“Microsoft is turning 50, and I turn 70 in October,” he said. “As Microsoft turns 50 years old, it feels right that I celebrate the milestone by committing to give away the resources I earned through the company.”
