Bill Gates pledged 99 percent of his $100 billion-plus fortune to charity while confirming his Gates Foundation will shut down by 2045.
“By deciding to spend all this money in the next 20 years, we can get a lot more done,” Gates, 69, announced on Thursday, May 8, during an interview on CBS Mornings.
The Gates Foundation has said it will double its pledge to help fight poverty, disease and inequity with $200 million in funds over the next 20 years. The group has already spent more than $100 million on charitable work throughout its 25-year lifespan.
Thursday’s announcement confirms a shift from the foundation’s original plan to keep funding charitable projects until at least two decades after Gates’ death.
Speaking to CBS Mornings, Gates said he was hopeful his donation would save “tens of millions of lives.”
“I hope I’m still alive when we finish the 20 years, but I’ll save a little bit [of money] to be able to buy hamburgers as much as I need,” he joked.
Despite his monetary pledge, Gates expressed fears that his foundation would raise “substantially less money” now because the U.S. and other countries that have been “substantially more generous” are cutting back on funding charitable aid.
Despite now dating Paul McCartney’s grandson, Arthur Donald, Phoebe Gates said she didn’t know a lot of music before meeting him. “I mean my family, like, we’re so nerdy, so I knew nothing about music,” Phoebe, 22, who is the daughter of Bill Gates, said on a Wednesday, April 30, episode of the “Call Her […]
“You always want more money going into these things where you are saving lives for a few thousand dollars,” he said.
The mogul acknowledged that the Gates Foundation’s fundraising by itself is not enough to replace the money that will be lost in cuts from the U.S. and other world governments. In April, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget promised significant cuts in foreign aid in 2026.
“We should be going from 5 million children dying a year, over the next 5 years, to 4 million,” he said. “Now, with these cuts, if they’re not reversed, we’ll go to over 6 million dying [yearly]. Instead of going down, we’ll go back up.”
Bill founded the Gates Foundation in 2000 alongside his then-wife Melinda Gates, along with additional funding from investor Warren Buffett. The group’s goal has been to reduce childhood mortality rates in the most impoverished parts of the world, as well develop technologies for vaccines and other inexpensive medical treatments.
Many celebrity couples like to pay it forward with their involvement in countless charitable efforts. While Beyoncé and Jay-Z are known for their successful music careers, they also both run their own foundations. In 2003, the rapper and his mother started the Shawn Carter Foundation, which provides scholarships to those who don’t qualify for assistance. […]
Bill and Melinda announced in May 2021 that they were divorcing after 27 years together. The tech innovator later called his divorce “the mistake [he] most regret[ted]” in January 2025, whereas Melinda insisted in April that their separation was “necessary.”
“If you can’t live your values out inside your most intimate relationship, it was necessary,” Melinda, 60, told The Sunday Times.
She later added, “I’ve just got to a point in life at 60 where I’ve been through a lot. I remember my mom said, after she crossed 60, ‘You know, I just find myself speaking my mind more. I go pick up at the dry cleaner and I tell them how they could be more efficient, you know?’ I kind of feel like that. I’ve lived life now, right? Life has a lot of lessons for us. And they can be hard, but they can also be beautiful.”
Aside from winding down his charitable foundation, Bill will celebrate another milestone this October when he turns 70.
Bill Gates’ children will earn just a small fraction of his fortune. The Microsoft cofounder is worth an estimated $101.2 billion, according to Forbes, but he will leave “less than 1%” of that to his three children, Jennifer, 28, Rory, 25, and Phoebe, 22. “My kids got a great upbringing and education, but less than […]
“When my birthday comes, in late October, I’ll gather hundreds of my friends and maybe they’ll roast me. Or, maybe we’ll just stay up late,” he quipped.
Bill said of his charitable legacy, “I wish I had even more time but I have to say, ‘OK this is the last part of my life, and I’m a steward of these [charitable] resources. I should make sure that it’s well spent.’ … Warren Buffet, his generosity is highly impactful and, now, this is the last stage of all that.”
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