According to CNN, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is making a definitive push toward fulfilling his long-held philanthropic vision by pledging to donate an additional $100 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As the Foundation marks its 25th anniversary, this monumental gift reinforces Gates’ long-stated goal of giving away nearly all of his wealth during his lifetime. In his own words, Gates stated, “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. There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people.”
Gates’ commitment represents one of the largest philanthropic endeavors in modern history. The new donation is part of a broader plan that aims to distribute up to 99% of his net worth by the end of 2045, at which point the Gates Foundation is expected to cease operations. By then, the cumulative contributions from Gates—along with the Foundation’s existing $67 billion endowment and returns from ongoing investments—are projected to amount to nearly $200 billion in global charitable spending. That funding will continue to target high-impact areas such as global health, poverty alleviation, education reform, and climate change mitigation.
This milestone also serves as a major inflection point in Gates’ legacy. Once the world’s richest person, Gates now ranks fifth on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, with a net worth currently estimated at $108 billion. While he has steadily been donating billions over the past two decades, this latest move signals a final acceleration toward his larger vision of impactful giving at a global scale. The Foundation, co-founded with his former wife Melinda French Gates, has already shaped policy and health outcomes in dozens of countries, and this renewed infusion of funds is expected to further amplify those efforts in its final two decades of operation.
