Bill Gates to spend most of his fortune in improving Africa's health services

MICROSOFT co-founder Bill Gates says that most of his fortune will be spent on improving health and education services in Africa over the next 20 years.

The 69-year-old had last month announced an accelerated timeframe for giving away his fortune.

Under a new timetable, the Gates Foundation will spend more than $200 billion over the next 20 years, shutting down in 2045.

The organization had originally planned to close 20 years after Gates' death.

During a visit to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, Gates said that "by unleashing human potential through health and education, every country in Africa should be on a path to prosperity".

He also urged Africa's young innovators to think about how to build Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve healthcare on the continent.

This announcement comes at a time when the US government has cut aid to Africa, including programs to treat patients with HIV/Aids, as part of president Donald Trump's "America First" policy, raising concerns about the future of healthcare on the continent.

Blasts Elon Musk

Bill Gates had earlier lashed out at Elon Musk, who was heading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), for huge cuts in the US foreign aid budget.

Musk had publicly bragged about feeding the US Agency for International Development (USAID) "into the wood chipper."

Around 80 per cent of USAID programs are set to be cut; the agency spent $44 billion worldwide in fiscal 2023.

"The picture of the world's richest man killing the world's poorest children is not a pretty one," Gates told the Financial Times.

In an interview with Reuters, Gates warned of a stark reversal to decades of progress in reducing mortality over the next four to six years due to the funding cuts by governments worldwide.

"The number of deaths will start going up for the first time ... it's going to be millions more deaths because of the resources," Gates told Reuters.

Africa aid

Gates said his foundation would focus on improving primary healthcare in Africa, with focus on maternity health and childcare.

In a message to young innovators, the tech billionaire noted that mobile phones had revolutionized banking in Africa, and argued that AI should now be used for the continent's benefit.

He cited the example of Rwanda, where AI-enabled ultrasound is being used to identify high-risk pregnancies.

Gates founded Microsoft in 1975 along with Paul Allen, and the company soon became a dominant force in the software technology space.

Around two decades later, he gradually stepped back from the company, and resigned as its chief executive in 2000 and as chairman in 2014.

Gates Foundation charity

Last month, he published a chart showing his net worth plummeting 99 per cent over the next 20 years in a blog post announcing the shift, describing a doubling of the pace of giving.

"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.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation launched in 2000, the same year Bill Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft.

In 2024, Melinda French Gates exited the foundation three years after the couple's divorce.

The organization, which had more than $71 billion in assets at the end of 2023, has been credited with helping to reshape the world of global public health.

It lists five offices throughout Africa, in addition to locations in the United States, Europe, China, India and the Middle East.

Gates cited progress in health efforts including campaigns to eradicate polio and the creation of a new vaccine for rotavirus that has helped reduce the number of children who die from diarrhea each year by 75 per cent.

Separate from the Gates Foundation, the Microsoft founder said he plans to continue to provide funding for initiatives to expand access to affordable energy and for breakthrough research into Alzheimer’s disease.

Gates, however, considers the government's role in alleviating people's suffering as essential, ruing deep budget cuts by the United States, Britain, France, and other countries.

"It's unclear whether the world’s richest countries will continue to stand up for its poorest people.

"But the one thing we can guarantee is that, in all of our work, the Gates Foundation will support efforts to help people and countries pull themselves out of poverty," he wrote.

Meanwhile, Gates is now in a serious relationship with Paula Hurd, widow of former Oracle CEO Mark Hurd, and the couple has been seen together at various public events. (Agencies)