WASHINGTON: The Founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, pledged to give away $200 billion in charity by 2045 through his foundation on Thursday, according to Reuters.
He criticized the SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, saying that through huge cuts to the U.S. foreign aid budget, he is “killing the world’s poorest children.”
“I believed that the money would help achieve my goals, which include the eradication of polio and malaria, and halting preventable deaths among children and women, and also reducing global poverty,” Gates said.
The 69-year-old billionaire co-founder of Microsoft said he was speeding up his plans to divest almost all of his fortune and would close the foundation on Dec. 31, 2045.
The announcement comes at a time when the US government has made huge cuts in international aid budgets used to prevent deadly diseases and famine.
In an interview with Reuters, Gates warned of a severe reversal in decades of progress in decreasing mortality over the next four to six years owing to global government budget shortages.
“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.
Gates admitted the fact that without the support of government, his foundation would not have achieved the progress it has now.
Furthermore, in a blog post, the Founder of the Gates Foundation said, “There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people. It’s unclear whether the world’s richest countries will continue to stand up for its poorest people.”
Early Donations
Since its founding, the foundation has donated $100 billion US, saving millions of lives and supporting projects such as Gavi and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
According to Gates, the organization will dissolve after spending around 99 percent of his own assets. The founders anticipated the foundation to end decades after their deaths.
Gates, whose fortune is presently valued at roughly $108 billion US, anticipates the foundation to spend approximately $200 billion US by 2045, with the exact total dependent on markets and inflation.
The organization has been criticized for wielding excessive power and influence in the field without accountability, especially at the World Health Organization.
Gates himself was also subject to conspiracy theories, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The world does have values. That’s what my parents taught me,” Gates told Reuters.
