Bill Gates Accuses Elon Musk Of Killing ‘World’s Poorest Children’ After USAID Cuts

Topline

Bill Gates on Thursday accused Elon Musk of “killing the world’s poorest children” after Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development earlier this year, as Gates said his foundation dedicated to giving away his billions will wind down operations by 2045.

The organization, founded in 2000, was previously scheduled to close decades after Gates’ death.

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

The Gates Foundation, established in 2000, will “sunset its operations” on Dec. 31, 2045, as the group announced a commitment to spend $200 billion over the next two decades.

In a statement, Gates said he would “give away virtually all my wealth” through the Gates Foundation until its closing date, saying his net worth—estimated by Forbes to be nearly $113 billion—would “drop 99%.”

Gates, 69, and then-wife Melinda Gates, 60, planned to close the Gates Foundation at least 20 years after their deaths, the organization said, though Bill Gates said he “began to rethink that approach” a few years ago and he now believes the foundation’s goals can be achieved “on a shorter timeline” if investments “double down.”

Over the foundation’s remaining 20 years, Gates said he hoped to stop newborn babies, children and mothers from dying of preventable causes, reduce poverty and end diseases like polio, malaria and measles.

The Gates Foundation announced what it called its largest annual budget earlier this year, with $9 billion in spending funds expected by 2026.

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Bill Gates Accuses Elon Musk Of ‘killing’ Children After Doge Cut Usaid

Gates accused Elon Musk of “killing the world’s poorest children” in an interview with the Financial Times, after Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development earlier this year. Musk said in February it was “time for [USAID]

to die,” and DOGE moved to place all of the agency’s staffers on administrative leave and cut off its work worldwide. A judge ruled in March to restore USAID’s functionality as litigation about the agency’s closing moves forward. Gates criticized Musk’s role in closing USAID, saying he would “love for him to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut that money.” Gates added, “The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one.”

Gates Has Long Criticized Musk’s Lack Of Charitable Giving

Gates has feuded with Musk for years over Musk’s reported lack of charitable giving, after the two billionaires met in 2022 and Musk told Gates, “Most philanthropy was bulls—.” Walter Isaacson claimed in his biography of Musk that Gates called Musk’s plan to send humans to Mars “overboard” and “bizarre thinking” about saving humanity. Musk questioned Gates’ decision to short Tesla’s stock, Isaacson said, and Musk later indicated he “cannot take [Gates’]

philanthropy on climate seriously” and said “I am convinced [Gates] is categorically insane.”

Key Background

Bill Gates established the Gates Foundation with Melinda Gates in 2000, and billionaire Warren Buffett joined as a trustee in 2006. The organization focused on giving funds to global public health initiatives, including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and vaccine groups like Gavi and the Vaccine Alliance. The organization has seen a shift in leadership in recent years, however: Melinda resigned from the Gates Foundation in 2024 to establish her own philanthropy, while Buffett—who contributed about $36 billion—left the group in 2022 and plans to give his remaining fortune to a charitable trust. Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman called on the world’s wealthiest to increase donations last year, arguing the number of people facing extreme poverty rose in the years after the pandemic. Suzman wrote earlier this year that foreign aid “fell off a cliff” in recent years.

Crucial Quote

“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 wrote, adding, “There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people.”

Big Number

$100 billion. That’s how much the Gates Foundation gave away through its first 25 years, Gates said.