‘Melinda French Gates has voiced strong support for the Gates Foundation’s ambitious plan to spend its entire $200 billion endowment on global health initiatives before shutting down in 2045, calling the decision “fantastic.”
The 69-year-old Microsoft co-founder said on Sunday that he is accelerating plans to give away nearly all of his wealth and will shut down the foundation by December 31, 2045—much earlier than previously intended, Reuters reported.
Why is Elon Musk ‘the reason’?
Gates sharply criticised Elon Musk, accusing him of endangering the lives of the world’s poorest children due to significant reductions in the US foreign aid budget.
Gates stated that the funds are aimed at achieving major humanitarian goals, including eradicating diseases like polio and malaria, preventing deaths among women and children, and alleviating global poverty.
His announcement follows moves by governments, including the Trump administration, to slash international aid budgets used to prevent deadly disease and famine.
According to a report by Reuters, the U.S. cuts have been overseen by Musk, who has publicly bragged about feeding the U.S. Agency for International Development “into the wood chipper,” and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Around 80% of USAID programs are set to be cut; the agency spent $44 billion worldwide in fiscal 2023.
“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Gates told the Financial Times.
The Gates Foundation’s annual budget will reach $9 billion by 2026 and around $10 billion annually after that due to the accelerated spending. Gates has warned the White House that his foundation and other philanthropies cannot fill the gaps left by governments.
“I think governments will come back to caring about children surviving” over the next 20-year period though, Gates said.
“Gates is a huge liar”
In response to a tweet featuring an interview with Bill Gates warning about US aid cuts, Elon Musk called Gates “a huge liar” on his X social media platform. Musk’s spokespeople were not immediately available for comment.
“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 post on his website. “It’s unclear whether the world’s richest countries will continue to stand up for its poorest people.”
He praised the response to aid cuts in Africa, where some governments have reallocated budgets, but said that, as an example, polio would not be eradicated without U.S. funding.
Gates made the announcement on the foundation’s 25th anniversary. He set up the organization with his then-wife Melinda French Gates in 2000, and they were later joined by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, Reuters reported.
(With inputs from Reuters.)
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