Bill Gates revealed his intention to close his charity at the end of 2045 – several decades earlier than expected.
“There are too many urgent problems to solve so that I can keep resources that could be used to help people,” Gates said in a blog article.
“This is why I decided to return my money to society much faster than I had originally planned,” he added. “I will give practically all my wealth thanks to the Gates Foundation in the next 20 years to save and improve lives around the world.”
Microsoft's co -founder first made this announcement in an interview with the New York Times to mark the 25th anniversary of the Gates Foundation, which is the third largest charity foundation in the world.
The organization was launched in 2000 by Gates and his then wife, Melinda French Gates, when they were 44 and 35 respectively.
Gates said in the interview that the foundation had “realized much more than me – or I think anyone – expected” and helped reduce the number of infant deaths from 10 million to 5 million per year.
When asked why he announced plans to sleep the operation, he said he had made a “big difference” to spend his resources “now compared to later”.
“We are not trying to manage our money for a strange heritage,” said Gates. “If we were trying to be a foundation forever, instead of being able to spend $ 9 billion a year, we must abandon to spend 6 billion dollars per year.
“Normally, we save lives for $ 2,000 or $ 3,000. But given the problems that exist, we now save life for less.
“And it's a miraculous moment. A large part of the hundred billion that we have spent is to build a pipeline, and the most important things that the foundations is done is what is currently in the R&D pipeline.”
Doors resigned as Microsoft CEO In 2008 to devote more time to the Foundation.
He held $ 69 billion in assets in 2020 and had an endowment of $ 75.2 billion in 2023.
The Foundation has given tens of billions of dollars to causes such as global health, gender equality and water sanitation programs.
Warren Buffett, who made the headlines last week when he announced that he was withdrawing from Berkshire Hathaway, was at the center of the Gates Foundation.
He was a director of the Foundation from 2006 to 2022 and his contributions At the Foundation totaled $ 36 billion in 2022.
The French doors resigned from its positions as a beam and trustee of the Foundation in 2024, after its divorce of the doors in 2021.
