Bill Gates criticizes Musk – and wants to donate all of his money until 2045

Microsoft founder Bill Gates positions himself as an opponent for his billionaire colleague Elon Musk. In an interview, he criticized Musk with sharp words for the cuts of US development aid. He himself wants to donate his billions even faster than before: by 2045, the Gates Foundation will practically spend all its assets for humanitarian purposes and then close, said Gates. He estimates that he will donate around $ 200 billion.

In the opinion of Großspender Gates, Tech billionaire Elon Musk is jointly responsible for the death of millions of children with the drastic cut of US aid programs. The cuts in the US Development Aid Organization USAID are “breathtaking,” said Gates in an interview with the “New York Times”. He expects the number of children who die annually in poor countries to rise from five to six million if there is no turning turn.

According to Gates, there should have been a decline to four million deaths in the coming years. “Because of these cuts, millions will die more,” said Gates. And he has no doubt about the role of Musk: “He is the one who has shortened the Budget of the USA.”

Gates had brought large parts of his assets into his foundation in recent years. Now he announced that the Gates Foundation will spend the money faster than previously thought. Over the next 20 years, more than $ 200 billion (around 176 billion euros) will be planned for charitable purposes, Gates wrote in his blog on Thursday. “We double our donations,” wrote the 69-year-old.

With the money, for example, he wanted to reduce the mortality rate of mothers and newborns “and free millions of people from poverty,” wrote Gates in his blog post. The Gates Foundation is considered the largest private foundation worldwide. According to its own statements, it financed health, education and development programs in more than 130 countries.

Gates continued to write that in the first 25 years of its existence the foundation “gave away more than $ 100 billion”. This is also thanks to the influential US investor Warren Buffett. Gates founded the foundation together with its ex-wife Melinda in 2000. At that time, Bill Gates retired from the company as a Microsoft boss.

Gates published a graphic in his contribution, according to which his assets will decrease by 99 percent in the next two decades. The Microsoft founder of the Wirtschaftsmagazin Forbes is currently in 13th place on the list of richest people worldwide. His estimated assets amount to almost $ 113 billion.

“People will say a lot about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ won’t be one of them,” emphasized Gates.

The Musk criticized by Gates only wrote about the allegations on his online platform X: “Gates is a huge liar.” Musk, who, among other things, has the electric car manufacturer Tesla, supported Donald Trump’s presidential campaign last year with more than $ 250 million and became his confidante. After moving into the White House, Trump commissioned him to reduce government spending. Musk also threw USAID “into the wood chopper”, as he put it on X himself.

“The richest man in the world is involved in the death of the poorest children in the world,” said Gates. Musk’s assets are estimated at more than $ 300 billion (EUR 268 billion). At the time, he had joined the initiative “The Giving Pledge”, which was launched by Gates and investor Warren Buffett, in which rich people undertake to donate assets for charitable purposes. This is also posthurous, as Gates noted. “Who knows? He could still become a big philanthrope,” he said about Musk.