Bill Gates accuses Elon Musk of 'killing' children in brutal new interview

Even though the richest men in the world might seem like they have pretty busy work schedules, that doesn't seem to stop them from taking time out from their days to take swipes at each other.

We've seen Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos previously duke it out in a war of the words, while Musk is also known for beefing with OpenAI's Sam Altman.

Now, Bill Gates is wading into things as he delivers his own brutal takedown of the world's richest man.

Bill Gates served as the richest man in the world between 1995 to 2010, and then regained his crown from 2013 to 2017, as well as having the honor of being the world's first-ever centibillionaire in 1999.

Although he's since pledged to give away (almost) all his money to charitable causes as part of the Giving Pledge alongside the likes of Warren Buffett and ex-wife Melinda French Gates, the fact that Gates' current net worth is $113 billion means he's not short of a dollar or two.

Still, that pales in comparison to Elon Musk lording it over us with a jaw-dropping $388 billion.

Musk has tumbled some way from his December 2024 peak of $486.4 billion, with his ongoing role in the Department of Government Efficiency continuing to put a dent in his financials.

There's been a vocal backlash to Musk slashing the federal spend and gutting whole departments, and alongside boycotts of his Tesla company, he's faced massive losses of $29 billion in a single day.

Musk has vowed to continue his mission in trying to cut spending by $2 trillion, although Gates has warned that trimming the fat could be having a devastating effect on the youth of today.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Gates has decried Musk's assault on USAID and accused the tech billionaire of 'killing' children due to the sudden cuts made to the organization.

Gates claims that Musk's cuts led to life-saving food and medicines helping tackle the likes of measles, HIV, and polio have been left to expire in warehouses.

In Gates' own words: "The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one."

Musk was vocally against USAID and said it was "time for it to die," which led to protests outside government buildings.

Gates goes on to say that Musk was wrong to cancel grants to a hospital in Gaza Province, Mozambique, amid the whole condom chaos: "I’d love for him to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut that money."

Since taking power alongside the Trump administration, the DOGE has been dismantling USAID and terminated over 5,600 workers.

In another scathing interview with the New York Times, Gates maintained that Musk has put USAID “in the wood chipper, because he didn’t go to a party that weekend."

The outlet reminded Gates that Musk is technically still part of The Giving Pledge, with the Windows founder concluding: "The Giving Pledge — an unusual aspect of it that you can wait until you die and still fulfill it. So who knows? He could go on to be a great philanthropist. In the meantime, the world’s richest man has been involved in the deaths of the world’s poorest children."

Musk isn't known for taking this kind of smack talk lying down, so we'll wait and see what he says back to Gates. In the meantime, the latter seems quite content giving away his massive fortune to help those in need.