Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said Wednesday that he plans to give all of his wealth to his and his ex-wife’s philanthropic organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In a Twitter thread, the Microsoft co-founder announced he was sending $20 billion to the foundation’s endowment this month to increase spending to $9 billion per year by 2026, citing the setbacks caused by the pandemic, the war on Ukraine, and other factors.
“As I look to the future, I plan to give virtually all of my wealth to the foundation,” Gates said. “I will move down and eventually off of the list of the world’s richest people.”
He also thanked famed billionaire investor Warren Buffet for his longtime contribution to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and said his “incredible generosity is a huge reason why the foundation has been able to be so ambitious.”
Buffett, Gates, and Melinda French Gates founded an initiative called The Giving Pledge in 2010 as a “movement of philanthropists who commit to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes, either during their lifetimes or in their wills.” It collected signatures from over 200 billionaires across the world.
