Bill Gates announces plan to give ‘virtually all’ his money away and end the Gates Foundation in 20 years
CNN
When Bill and Melinda French Gates created the Gates Foundation in 2000, they had planned for the organization to continue its work, using their remaining fortune, for several decades after they died. But now, the billionaire Microsoft founder says he doesn’t want to wait that long to give away most of his wealth.
When Bill and Melinda French Gates created the Gates Foundation in 2000, they had planned for the organization to continue its work, using their remaining fortune, for several decades after they died. But now, the billionaire Microsoft founder says he doesn’t want to wait that long to give away most of his wealth. Gates announced on Thursday that he now plans to distribute “virtually all” of his wealth — around $200 billion, he estimates — within the next 20 years, before shuttering the foundation on December 31, 2045. The announcement comes as President Donald Trump’s administration is working to slash funding for health, foreign aid and other public assistance programs — the types of causes the Gates Foundation supports — raising concerns about stalled progress on research and other crucial projects. Gates wants to accelerate the foundation’s work on global health and equity initiatives and hopes the move will set a model for other billionaires, he said in a blog post published Thursday morning. The pledge builds on Gates’ track record of promoting philanthropy. He, along with ex-wife French Gates and Warren Buffett, launched the Giving Pledge in 2010 to encourage wealthy individuals to donate most of their fortunes to charitable causes either during their lifetimes or in their wills. It now has more than 240 signatories. “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, who turns 70 later this year, wrote. “There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people.” The Gates Foundation, one of the world’s largest philanthropies, has already given away more than $100 billion since its founding, including to develop new vaccines, diagnostic tools and treatment delivery mechanisms to fight disease around the world. Gates has increased the pace of his giving in recent years, especially following the pandemic, but Thursday’s announcement marks a dramatic acceleration in the mobilization of his wealth. The Gates Foundation called it the “largest philanthropic commitment in modern history.”
Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into the Federal Reserve’s $2.5 billion renovation of its headquarters in Washington, DC.
The United States attacked Venezuela and President Donald Trump is threatening to take Greenland “the hard way.” All the while, the US has an uncertain economic outlook and a weak jobs report.
President Donald Trump, like any politician whose polling is in the gutter, is desperate for a villain — any villain — to blame for America’s affordability woes. Enter Wall Street.
Venezuela is home to the world’s largest reported oil reserves. The country’s other commodities have also caught the Trump administration’s attention.
As President Donald Trump piled on new tariffs last year, many economists quickly warned that prices and unemployment would spike. With most of the 2025 economic results in, it’s looking like those forecasters get partial credit.
AI once again dominated CES, where companies from around the world gathered to flaunt new technologies. It’s where tech giants like Nvidia, Samsung, and Amazon made their case for the role AI will play in how people live and work, despite concerns of an AI bubble.
Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot has limited some aspects of its Imagine image generation features to paid subscribers on X, days after international uproar over the AI tool “digitally undressing” people, including children, upon user requests on X.
The food pyramid is getting turned upside down, with protein and dairy gaining more prominence in the suggested American diet. Sugar and processed foods are getting shunned even more with warning labels.
On Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the latest snapshot on the health of the US labor market – and economists’ estimates vary wildly over what we should expect for the final jobs report of 2025.
President Donald Trump is set to meet with Big Oil executives Friday as part of a weeklong charm offensive to persuade America’s largest energy companies to return to Venezuela.
General Motors on Thursday said it will take an additional $6 billion hit against its earnings as result of it pulling back on its electric vehicle plans.
Paramount is not raising its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery above $30 per share, at least not yet.
On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the final jobs report for 2025 — and economists’ estimates vary wildly over what we should expect.