The Gates Foundation received a death sentence of sorts today.
Microsoft co-founder turned billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said Thursday that his foundation will have just 20 years to exhaust its coffers and wind down operations. He has pledged to donate 99% of his fortune, which today is worth an estimated $107 billion, to the foundation. Over the next 20 years of donations, he expects the foundation to spend more than $200 billion.
“This decision comes at a moment of reflection for me,” Gates wrote on his website, Gates Notes. “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.”
The total of Gates’ donation is expected to be the second-largest philanthropic gift in U.S. history, adjusted for inflation. Warren Buffett, whose net wealth is estimated at $160 billion, is anticipated to be the largest.
Previously, the Gates Foundation was directed to close 20 years after Gates’ death. The 69-year-old Microsoft founder appears to be in good health, so this marks a significant shift in the foundation’s timeline.
The 25-year-old Gates Foundation has already spent more than $100 billion on a range of causes centered mostly around health, education, global development, and gender equality.
Many of the Gates Foundation’s beneficiaries have been people in low-income countries with endemic and frequently deadly diseases like malaria.
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The news arrives as the Trump administration has moved to slash foreign aid. USAID, one of the agencies hit by Trump’s cuts, managed more than $35 billion of congressional appropriations annually. The Gates Foundation said it expects to spend around $9 billion per year through 2045.
