Bill Gates
Sarah Biren
Sarah Biren
March 18, 2024 Ā·  4 min read

Bill Gates Says he Fully Intends to Lose his Rich List Spot While Still Alive

 Billionaire Bill Gates plans to get off the worldā€™s rich list while heā€™s still alive. This declaration came with the Microsoft co-founderā€™s pledge to donate $20 billion to his philanthropic organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He is currently the fourth richest man in the world, and he said he has an ā€œobligationā€ to give back to society. This announcement isnā€™t the first of its kind. Gates had first vowed to give his wealth to charity back in 2010 but his net worth has doubled over the years, currently at $118 billion. But after he donates the $20 billion, his net worth should fall considerably.

Bill Gates Plans to Give His Wealth to Charity

Gates had topped Forbesā€™ list of the richest person in the world from 1995 to 2010, and then again from 2013 to 2017. But he seems ready to step farther from that title. “As I look to the future, I plan to give virtually all of my wealth to the foundation,” he said in a Twitter thread. “I will move down and eventually off of the list of the world’s richest people. I have an obligation to return my resources to society in ways that have the greatest impact for reducing suffering and improving lives. And I hope others in positions of great wealth and privilege will step up in this moment too.”

The Gates Foundation is a charitable fund Gates set up with his now-ex-wife in 2000. The foundation works to improve education and eradicate diseases in countries around the world. Itā€™s also backed by many other wealthy contributors, including billionaire Warren Buffett. The foundation is also the largest private donor to the World Health Organization. [1]

Read: Resurfaced Footage From 1995 Shows Bill Gates Predicting 2022 Technology In Frightening Detail

ā€œMy direction of travel is clear.ā€

The $20 billion donation totals Bill Gatesā€™ lifetime donations to $55 billion, making them the leading philanthropist, surpassing Warren Buffet who has donated $48 billion. ā€œI’ll get myself out of the highly visible part of the list with just, say, two more gifts of this magnitude. I would get myself off the top part of the list,ā€ said Gates. ā€œGetting all the way off the list, thatā€™s going to take me a while, but my direction of travel is clear.ā€

The large pledge to the Gates Foundation allows the organization to spend more on aiding change. ā€œThis is going to supercharge or accelerate, charge, turbocharge basically all the work that we do,ā€ said Gates. His aim is to deploy as much help as possible as opposed to other administrators who pace their funding. ā€œItā€™s as though they’re trying to maximize how long their foundation can exist,ā€ says Gates, ā€œas opposed to, are there some high-impact things they can do now?ā€

With the new donation, Gates plans for the Gates Foundation to spend $9 billion a year, boosting their annual spending by 50%. By 2026, heā€™ll evaluate how the foundation handled the increased spending and potentially contribute more. ā€œIā€™m not setting the $9 billion as a ceiling. Iā€™ll know a lot more about the assets and how theyā€™re performing between now and then.ā€ [2]

How Has Gates Spent His Wealth?

Over the years, Bill Gates has indulged in lavish purchases, but these are only a fraction of his fortune. Overall, Gates is known to be careful with his money and seems to prefer giving it to charity.

When Gates become a billionaire at age 31 (the youngest billionaire at the time), he didnā€™t go on a shopping spree. Instead, he made lavish purchases over time, like on a private plane, reportedly a Bombardier BD-700 Global Express, which costs $40 million and can seat 19 people. He also invested in his estate, Xanadu 2.0, located in Medina, Washington. After buying the lot for $2 million in 1988, he spent $63 million to build the 66,000-square-foot home. He also has a 4.5-acre vacation ranch in Wellington, Florida, the 228-acre Rancho Paseana in California, plus a 43 million-dollar oceanfront home in California, among other estates.

As far as philanthropy goes, Gates had invested in Amyris, a synthetic-bioligy company when it was producing precursors to malaria drugs and hydrocarbon-based biofuel. In 2017, he gave $50 million into research on Alzheimerā€™s. Later, he invested $30 million into the Diagnostics Accelerators, fund to help diagnose Alzheimerā€™s earlier and more efficiently. This is in addition to the donation to the Gates Foundation, which prioritizes global education, health, and development.Ā 

But Bill Gates doesnā€™t plan on giving all his wealth to charity; he is leaving $10 million to each of his children. However, he still has billions left to donate before he can drop off the list of the richest persons in the world. [3]

Keep Reading: Billionaire promised to die ā€˜broke.ā€™ $8 billion dollars later, the world is a better place for it.

Sources

  1. ā€œBill Gates vows to drop off world’s rich list.ā€ BBC. July 16
  2. ā€œBill Gates Reveals How He And Ex-Wife Melinda Came Together For Blockbuster $20 Billion Gift That Makes Them Worldā€™s Biggest Givers.ā€ Forbes. July 13, 2022
  3. ā€œBill Gates says he’ll eventually give all his wealth to his charity foundation. Here’s how the Microsoft cofounder spends his $114 billion fortune, from a luxury-car collection to incredible real estate.ā€ Business Insider. Hillary Hoffower and Avery Hartmans. July 14, 2022