Bill Gates to Donate 99% of His Wealth 

Billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates, has announced that he plans to give away nearly all of his estimated $200 billion fortune, keeping just one percent for himself and his family.

He also revealed that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will permanently shut down by December 31, 2045.

In a heartfelt blog post on his website, Gates Notes, on Thursday, Gates said, “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.”

Gates explained that the urgency of global challenges such as poverty, health, and education makes it necessary for him to distribute his wealth more quickly than originally planned.

“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 wrote.

According to a chart shared in his blog post, Bill Gates donates wealth over the next 20 years through the foundation, giving away 99% of his money. That means he will retain only about $1.6 billion, or one percent of his fortune.

Founded in 2000 with his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has already spent more than $100 billion over the past two decades.

Its major focus areas include global health, education, and poverty reduction. The foundation has played a major role in vaccine development, disease prevention, and emergency response around the world.

Gates admitted that this move is different from the foundation’s original sunset plan. When it was created, the plan was to close the organisation a few decades after both co-founders had passed away.

“This is a change from our original plans. When Melinda and I started the Gates Foundation in 2000, we included a clause in the foundation’s very first charter: The organisation would sunset several decades after our deaths,” he wrote.

However, he shared that he recently changed his mind. “With input from our board, I now believe we can achieve the foundation’s goals on a shorter timeline, especially if we double down on key investments and provide more certainty to our partners,” Gates added.

Reflecting on the achievements of the foundation, Gates expressed pride in the progress made over the last 25 years.

He mentioned successful partnerships with organisations like Gavi and the Global Fund, which helped deliver vaccines and treatments around the world. These efforts, according to Gates, have saved over 80 million lives so far.

He also highlighted the foundation’s work in polio eradication with Rotary International, and the development of a rotavirus vaccine that has reduced childhood deaths from diarrhoea by 75%.

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“We brought together other foundations, non-profits, governments, multilateral agencies, and the private sector as partners to solve big problems—as we will continue to do for the next twenty years,” Gates said.

Though the foundation is widely praised, some critics have raised concerns about Gates’ influence over global health policies and funding. Still, Gates remains confident in his decisions.

In an interview with the Associated Press, he defended his actions, saying, “Like any private citizen, I can choose how to spend the money I earn.

I think 20 years is the right balance between giving as much as we can to make progress on these things and giving people a lot of notice that now this money will be gone.”

According to the Daily Mail, the remaining one percent of his wealth may eventually go to his three children—Phoebe, Rory, and Jennifer.

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