Bill Gates calls DOGE ‘geographically illiterate,’ says Elon Musk is ‘involved in the deaths of the world’s poorest children’

“The world’s richest man has been involved in the deaths of the world’s poorest children,” Bill Gates said.Bay Ismoyo; Brendan Smialowski/AFP/ Getty Images

Bill Gates sharply criticized Elon Musk in an interview with The New York Times published on Thursday, calling out the Tesla cofounder’s role in cutting foreign aid as part of his Department of Government Efficiency initiative.

The Microsoft cofounder said that cuts made to foreign aid, particular programs administered by the now-shuttered US Agency for International Development, were “stunning.”

“He’s the one who cut the USAID budget. He put it in the wood chipper, because he didn’t go to a party that weekend,” Gates told the Times of Musk. “The world’s richest man has been involved in the deaths of the world’s poorest children.”

Gates also referred to an instance early in President Donald Trump’s term in which administration officials said that the US had been sending condoms to Gaza via foreign aid. In reality, the US had been providing contraceptives to a province in the African country of Mozambique.

“They cut the money to Gaza Province in Mozambique. That is really for drugs, so mothers don’t give their babies HIV,” Gates said. “But the people doing the cutting are so geographically illiterate, they think it’s Gaza and condoms. Will they go meet those babies who got HIV because that money was cut? Probably not.”

Gates made the remarks as he discussed his plans to give away the remainder of his wealth over the next 20 years before closing his foundation in 2045.

The Gates Foundation has invested heavily in public health initiatives around the world, often focusing on childhood diseases.

This isn’t the first time Gates has been critical of Musk — or vice versa.

Gates has argued that Musk has destabilized the politics of foreign countries through his support for right-wing causes in the United Kingdom and Germany. He’s also said that while he believes Tesla is having a positive environmental impact, he wishes Musk were more outspoken about the climate crisis.

Musk, in turn, has said that Gates has a “limited” understanding of artificial intelligence.

Musk, DOGE, Tesla, and the White House did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.