The world's largest philanthropic foundation. It was established at the turn of the millennium by Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, and has spent $100bn fighting disease and poverty. It is run by Mark Suzman.
In May 2025 Gates announced that the foundation will close its doors in 2045, earlier than expected. It plans to spend another $200bn in the next 20 years—virtually all of Gates's fortune. Suzman called the $200bn figure "conservative". Gates quoted Andrew Carnegie's "The Gospel of Wealth": "the man who dies thus rich dies disgraced."
The foundation's accelerated spending is part of a broader trend towards "giving while living" among wealthy donors. The share of American family foundations spending down their funds has risen to 13% from 9% over the past decade. The foundation is also trying to plug gaps left by government donors: official development assistance from the world's largest donors dropped for the first time in six years in 2024, according to the OECD. America, historically the biggest aid spender, gutted its aid agency under Donald Trump.
The foundation funds the Human-Centered Weather Forecasts Initiative (HCF), alongside the United Arab Emirates, to extend AI weather forecasting to east and west Africa.
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