Bill Gates Gives Himself New Deadline to Give Away $100 Billion Fortune — and to Close Foundation

The donation will provide the foundation with $200 billion to spend over the next 20 years

Bill Gates in May 2025.Credit : 

ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty

Bill Gates announced huge plans for the majority of his estimated $107 billion fortune.

In an interview with the Associated Press published on Thursday, May 8, the 69-year-old businessman confirmed that he would be donating 99% of his fortune to the Gates Foundation. “It’s kind of thrilling to have that much to be able to put into these causes,” Gates told the outlet about his plans, noting that the philanthropic foundation is set to close in 2045.

According to the AP, the donation will provide the foundation with an additional $200 billion to spend over the next 20 years. “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,” he said of the decision.

Gates noted that “the foundation work has been way more impactful than I expected.”

Bill Gates in New York City on Sept. 24, 2024.Craig Barritt/Getty

In an article posted to Gates Notes, he explained his decision even further, revealing that he was inspired by a 1889 essay by Andrew Carnegie, which “makes the case that the wealthy have a responsibility to return their resources to society.”

“That is why I have decided to give my money back to society much faster than I had originally planned,” Gates wrote. “I will give away virtually all my wealth through the Gates Foundation over the next 20 years to the cause of saving and improving lives around the world. And on December 31, 2045, the foundation will close its doors permanently.”

Gates added later, “This decision comes at a moment of reflection for me. In addition to celebrating the foundation’s 25th anniversary, this year also marks several other milestones: It would have been the year my dad, who helped me start the foundation, turned 100; Microsoft is turning 50; and I turn 70 in October.”

Gates opened the foundation in 2000 alongside his then-wife, Melinda French Gates.

According to the AP, in addition to $100 billion since it was first founded 25 years ago, the foundation “has directed scientific research, helped develop new technologies, and nurtured long-term partnerships with countries and companies.”

The latest plans for the foundation follows French Gates’s departure in May 2024, which came after the couple got divorced in 2021 following 27 years of marriage,

“l’m holding a complicated mix of emotions today,” she said the following month in a letter to foundation colleagues and alumni. “I’m sad to be saying goodbye, proud of all we accomplished, energized by what’s ahead, and excited to see what you do next. But the emotion I feel most strongly right now is gratitude.

Bill Gates in Dubai on Dec. 1, 2023.Christophe Viseux / COP28 via Getty

She continued, saying, “As you know better than anyone, the work we do here every day isn’t always glamorous — there are lots of spreadsheets, lots of slide decks, lots of inconveniently timed meetings to accommodate a globe’s worth of time zones — but the impact you and our partners are having in the world could not be more important.”

During an April 14, appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, French Gates, 60, spoke about the end of their relationship. She noted that she “wanted” to have a “trusted relationship.” To achieve that, she said that “both partners have to be honest with one another.”

“And if you can’t, you can’t have intimacy and you can’t have trust,” she explained. “So in the end, I had to go.”