Microsoft founder Bill Gates has announced a new plan to give away 99% of his $108 billion fortune by 2045, alongside which he’s given an interview to the Financial Times damning the actions of his fellow billionaire Elon Musk within the Trump administration.
Gates’ blog post outlines three core goals for the Gates Foundation, which are: the eradication of preventable diseases that kill mothers and children; the elimination of infectious diseases such as malaria and measles; and lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. It’s in this context that Gates takes aim at not just Musk but countries like the UK and France for cutting foreign aid budgets.
“It’s unclear whether the world’s richest countries will continue to stand up for its poorest people,” says Gates. “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.”
Gates then went for Musk, claiming that the Tesla CEO’s role in the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) makes Musk personally responsible for the outcome of decisions such as cutting the US Agency for International Development’s budget and gutting its staff.
“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” said Gates. He raises the example of a hospital in Gaza Province, Mozambique, which President Donald Trump falsely claimed was using US funding to make condoms “for Hamas,” a claim that Musk himself later acknowledged was wrong.
Musk also confused the hospital’s location with Gaza in Palestine, saying at the time “some of the things that I say will be incorrect.”
“I’d love for [Musk] to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut that money,” said Gates.
Gates goes on to reference Musk calling USAID “a criminal organisation”, saying this shows Musk has no idea what the agency does. This is not the first time that the billionaires have clashed, with Musk previously calling Gates’ style of philanthropic giving “bullshit” and claiming companies like Tesla would more effectively tackle issues like climate change.
Gates’ blog post says The Gates Foundation has spent around $100 billion on its various projects, and expects to spend $200 million over the next two decades. Gates explains some of his thinking by citing a 1889 essay by Andrew Carnegie, The Gospel of Wealth, which argues that the super-rich have a moral duty to return their fortunes to society.
“People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them,” says Gates.
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