Bill Gates has pledged to give away 99 per cent of his remaining fortune to his charitable foundation over the next 20 years.

The 69-year-old billionaire co-founder of Microsoft also lashed out at Elon Musk, accusing the world's richest man of "killing the world's poorest children" through huge cuts to the US foreign aid budget.

Mr Gates said he was speeding up his plans to donate $US200 billion ($312 billion) to the Gates Foundation — a nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world — and would close the foundation on December 31, 2045, years earlier than previously planned.

The American business man said he believed the money would help achieve several of his goals, such as eradicating diseases like polio and malaria, ending preventable deaths among women and children, and reducing global poverty.

'Killing the world's poorest children'

His announcement follows moves by governments, including the Trump administration, to slash international aid budgets used to prevent deadly disease and famine.

The US cuts have been overseen by Mr Musk, who has publicly bragged about feeding the US Agency for International Development (USAID) "into the wood chipper," and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

About 80 per cent of USAID programs are set to be cut; the agency spent $US44 billion worldwide in fiscal 2023.

"The picture of the world's richest man killing the world's poorest children is not a pretty one," Mr Gates told the Financial Times.

The philanthropist warned of a stark reversal to decades of progress in reducing mortality over the next four to six years due to the funding cuts by governments worldwide.

"The number of deaths will start going up for the first time … it's going to be millions more deaths because of the resources," Mr Gates told Reuters.

Mr Gates has warned the White House that his foundation and other philanthropies cannot fill the gaps left by governments.

"I think governments will come back to caring about children surviving" over the next 20-year period though, Mr Gates said on Thursday.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-09/bill-gates-plans-to-give-away-99-per-cent-of-his-money/105275318

 

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