Bill Gates has given great chunks of his wealth to charity throughout his life. He did that on many occasions through his Foundation, ‘Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’. However, now he pledged something that he never mentioned before. He pledges to drop off the world’s wealthiest people list within the following several years.
This pledge came unexpectedly when he was announcing his donation of $20 billion to his philanthropic fund.
Gates says that he does all this because he feels like he owes it to society. He got one of the wealthiest people on the planet because of it, and he feels that returning the resources to society is the right thing to do.
Bill Gates Will Drop From The Wealthiest List Purposely Until 2026
This is not the first time that Gates is ‘promising’ to give away his wealth. He did this on several occasions until now, most recently back in 2010. However, when you look at the numbers, his wealth has more than doubled since then.
According to Forbes magazine, Bill Gates is worth more than $110 billion at the moment. This is expected to fall by a significant percentage once he makes the donation he pledged he’ll do.
“As I look to the future, I plan to give virtually all of my wealth to the foundation. I will move down and eventually off of the list of the world’s richest people.” – Bill Gates tweets.
The 4th wealthiest man in the world states that the foundation will spend $9 billion a year, instead of the $6 billion that it spent until now. This ‘raise’ is to happen gradually, but it should reach the promised $9 billion by 2026.
“I have an obligation to return my resources to society. Return them in ways that have the greatest impact on reducing suffering and improving lives. And I hope others in positions of great wealth and privilege will step up at this moment too.” – Bill Gates says.
What The Gates Foundation does is it funds clinics and research centers for contagious diseases such as Malaria, and it funds educational programs in the poorest areas of the world. At the moment it is the second largest foundation in the world having around $50 billion in stock.
Bill and Melinda’s foundation is the largest donor to the WHO, World Health Organisation.
Bill Gates held first place on Forbes as the richest person in the world in the period between 1995 and 2017. He got ‘beaten’ by Jeff Bezos in 2017, and finally, he got beaten by the current wealthiest person Elon Musk in 2022.
