$20 billion immediately
Gates wants to give “all assets” to foundation
7/15/2022 1:26 p.m
Bill Gates has been at the top of the list of the super rich for many years. His fortune is currently said to be more than $102 billion. But the Microsoft founder says he wants to gradually get rid of his money: he sees it better off with his foundation.
Bill Gates is still one of the richest people in the world. But that could change soon, because the Microsoft founder would like to transfer around 20 billion US dollars to his foundation immediately. And that’s not all: “I intend to give practically my entire fortune to the foundation. I will slide down the list of the richest people in the world and eventually disappear completely,” writes the 66-year-old on Twitter.
In his blog Gates explains that the $20 billion will increase the Gates Foundation’s annual budget to $9 billion. He founded the foundation with his then wife Melinda. “I don’t see giving this money as a sacrifice,” Gates said. The sum should be transferred later this month.
In one of several tweets, Gates also writes that he is committed to giving back his “resources” to society “in ways that have the greatest impact on reducing suffering and improving life.” He hoped other empires would do the same. With a view to the challenges of this time, Gates lists the corona pandemic, the Ukraine war, climate change and regression in the USA on the issues of gender equality and women’s health care.
“But I remain optimistic,” Gates writes. He believes it is possible to “return to the progress that the world has made”.
In 1975, Bill Gates founded what later became the IT giant Microsoft together with Paul Allen. According to Forbes magazine, his fortune is said to be more than 102 billion US dollars (which currently corresponds to around 100 billion euros). With that he gets up 5th on the global super rich list. He led this for many years.
the “Gate’s Foundation”, founded in 2000, is dedicated to fighting poverty, disease and inequality. However, such foundations or the campaign “The Giving Pledge” not undisputed. Critics see, among other things, the danger that rich donors will support projects in this way without this being democratically legitimized and state-controlled.