Bill Gates Plans to Give Away his Fortune, Shares Plan to Distribute Wealth

• Bill Gates has announced plans to close the Gates Foundation by 2045, several decades earlier than initially planned, to expedite the distribution of resources to solve urgent global problems
• The foundation, which Gates co-founded with his ex-wife Melinda in 2000, has contributed significantly to reducing childhood fatalities and funding global health, water sanitation, and gender equality initiatives
• Gates explained that by accelerating the spending of the foundation's assets, he aims to make a more immediate impact on global challenges, rather than leaving a legacy of perpetual funding

Legit.ng journalist Zainab Iwayemi has 5-year-experience covering the Economy, Technology, and Capital Market.

Several decades ahead of schedule, Bill Gates has announced plans to close his charity foundation at the end of 2045.

Gates said,

"There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people."

"That is why I have decided to give my money back to society much faster than I had originally planned," he added. "I will give away virtually all my wealth through the Gates Foundation over the next 20 years to the cause of saving and improving lives around the world."

The revelation was first made by the Microsoft co-founder in an interview with The New York Times to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Gates Foundation, the world's third-largest charity foundation.

At the ages of forty-four and thirty-five, respectively, Gates and his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, founded the organisation in 2000.

In the interview, Gates stated that the foundation had "achieved far more than I — or I think anyone — expected" and contributed to the annual decrease in the number of childhood fatalities from 10 million to 5 million.

Asked why he was announcing plans to sunset the operation, he said it made a "big difference" to spend its resources "now versus later."

"We're not trying to steward our money for some weird legacy thing," Gates said. "If we were trying to be a forever foundation, instead of being able to spend $9 billion a year, we'd have to drop down to spending like $6 billion a year.

"Normally, we're saving lives for $2,000 or $3,000. But given the problems that are out there, we're actually now saving lives for less."

"And this is a miraculous time. A lot of the hundred billion we've spent is to build a pipeline, and the most important stuff the foundation is doing is the stuff that's in the R&D pipeline right now."

In 2008, Gates left his position as CEO of Microsoft to focus more on the foundation. As of 2020, its assets totalled $69 billion, and as of 2023, its endowment was $75.2 billion.

Tens of billions of dollars have been donated by the foundation to causes like water sanitation initiatives, gender equality, and global health.

A key figure in the Gates Foundation was Warren Buffett, who made news last week when he revealed he was leaving Berkshire Hathaway.

He served as a trustee of the foundation from 2006 until 2022, and his contributions to the organisation reached $36 billion as of 2022.

French Gates resigned from her positions as co-chair and trustee of the charity in 2024, following her divorce from Gates in 2021.

Bill Gates invests in Nigeria’s agriculture

Legit.ng earlier reported that Gates announced a $2 billion investment to boost Nigeria’s healthcare, nutrition, and agricultural sectors.

The billionaire disclosed this at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting by Vice President Kashim Shettima at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday, September 4, 2024.

Gates said that Nigeria needs to invest in its people, who are its most significant resources.

Proofreading by James Ojo, copy editor at Legit.ng.

Source: Legit.ng