Billionaire Bill Gates to donate almost entire personal wealth by 2045

Billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates pledged on Thursday to donate almost his entire fortune by 2045. The philantropist aims to give away around 200 billion dollars to the world's poor via his foundation.

With a fortune today estimated at 108 billion dollars, Gates is among the richest people in the world. Although he was named richest man on earth by Forbes for several consecutive years until 2018, he is today the 13th richest person, according to the Forbes Billionaires List.

The announcement comes at a time when several governments and in particular the United States have significantly slashed funding for humanitarian aid. The cuts made to USAID, the US government agency for humanitarian aid, have endangered public health, education and social programmes in countries around the world.

In February 2025, Gates pointed out that his Foundation could not work miracles, but that "we'll be showing that we're doing the most we can".

"The need of course, is far greater than what we can do. But we'll be showing that we're doing the most we can and give a lot of predictability to the field. By having this, we'll be here all of those 20 years but not thereafter," he said.

Gates announced that he would speed up his wealth donation process on the 25th anniversary of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Created with his then-wife in 2000, the foundation will close once it has spent 99% of his fortune, according to Gates.