Featured Image Credit: James Devaney / Contributor / Getty
Bill Gates has given away an extraordinary amount of money, but he has plans to donate even more in the coming years.
He was once the richest man in the world, but these days, Bill Gates is nowhere near the world's richest. Elon Musk's current net worth of $421.6 billion dwarves Gates' reported $165 billion, and with the likes of Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Ellison coming in the top five, the Microsoft co-founder continues to slip down the rankings.
That doesn't seem to matter to Gates, who has given away over $100 million and promises there's more to come.
In 2022, Gates posted on X and reiterated that he founded The Giving Pledge campaign in 2010 to give away 'virtually all' his wealth.
Advert
Speaking to the BBC, Gates explained how the $100 billion he's already given away is nothing compared to what he's still got to give: "I've given over 100 billion, but I still have more to give."
To put that into context, the BBC says that's roughly the size of the Bulgarian economy or just one year of Tesla sales.
Gates was the world's first-ever centibillionaire in 1999, topped the list as the world's richest from 1995 to 2010, then returned from 2013 to 2017.
The tech mogul was worth $107 billion in December 2024, which was a substantial drop from his $160 billion last November.
Gates, ex-wife Melinda, and fellow billionaire Warren Buffet founded The Giving Pledge as a philanthropical venture, with Gates saying his mother regularly told him, "With wealth came the responsibility to give it away."
Although around $60 billion has gone into The Giving Pledge, Gates says he hasn't really noticed a chunk missing from his not-so-small fortune: "I made no personal sacrifice. I didn't order less hamburgers or less movies."
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 (@BillGates) July 13, 2022
He openly said he plays to give away 'the vast majority' of his wealth and has regularly spoken to his children about the fact they'll only be given $10 million when he dies. When the BBC probed the billionaire on whether his children will be 'poor' when he's gone, he replied: "They will not...in absolute, they'll do well, in percentage terms it's not a gigantic number."
According to Bloomberg, there are only 15 centibillionaires in the world, with Gates still sitting in this exclusive club.
Despite sitting out Donald Trump's inauguration while some of the world's richest gathered at the Capitol Rotunda, Gates says he's met with the returning POTUS. Having shared a three-hour dinner in December 2024, Gates explained they met "because he's making decisions about global health and how we help poor countries, which is a big focus of mine now."
Gates has helped fund research into AIDS and Polio over the years, advance gender equality, and promote education, but despite giving away over $100 billion, the 69-year-old shows no sign of letting up in his charitable ventures.
