In the 1990s, as Microsoft became successful, I decided I would eventually give away virtually all of my wealth.

The goal of my philanthropy is to reduce inequity. Globally, the worst inequity is in health. More than 4 million children under the age of five die every year, nearly all of them in poor countries. Climate change is increasingly a source of inequity because extreme weather is hardest on the world’s poorest people. In the United States, the worst inequity is in education. So these are the primary issues where I fund research, policy work, and other activities.

I do most of my giving on health and education through the Gates Foundation. I also fund some efforts that aren’t connected to the foundation, including Exemplars in Global Health and the OER Project. Breakthrough Energy is the vehicle for most of my work on climate and energy.

The foundation and these other organizations focus on developing and deploying innovations that will reduce inequity.

So we look for these market failures and seek to correct them with philanthropic funding for innovations that benefit people in poor countries, with the goal that governments will eventually take the most effective approaches to scale.

I have been lucky to work with strong partners. My ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, was instrumental in shaping the foundation’s strategies from the beginning. She left the foundation in 2024 to pursue her own philanthropy. My late father, Bill Gates Sr., played a crucial role with his wisdom, legal expertise, and values. Warren Buffett has made incredibly generous donations to the foundation—$39.3 billion since 2006—and served on our board from 2006 to 2021. And the foundation has had four CEOs: Patty Stonesifer, Jeff Raikes, Sue Desmond-Hellmann, and our current CEO, Mark Suzman.

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Early philanthropy and growth of the foundation

In 1994, I began my philanthropy by establishing the William H. Gates Foundation, which was focused on improving global health and on supporting communities in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. In 1997, Melinda and I created the Gates Library Foundation, which was dedicated to providing internet service in public libraries throughout the United States.

In 2000, we merged these foundations into the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with an initial endowment of $20 billion and a focus on health, education, and the libraries program. (It was renamed the Gates Foundation after Melinda left.) Including that original contribution, I have donated a total of $59.5 billion to the foundation.

Warren Buffett’s generosity beginning in 2006 has allowed us to expand our initiatives and reach more people in need. For example, it let us create new programs to help low-income farmers in Asia and Africa grow more food and earn more money.