PayPal co-founder under fire for telling billionaires to ignore Bill Gates' the Giving Pledge
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett founded the Giving Pledge alongside Melinda French Gates in 2010, with the organization imploring fellow billionaires to donate the majority of their money to charitable causes.
It's said that as of October 2025, the Giving Pledge has over 250 signatories and sits at a total of $600 billion.
Many of the world's richest are among those who signed up to the Giving Pledge back in the day, with Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg being just some of the notable signatories.
Still, Musk has been lambasted over how much he's donated, previously called out the charitable donations of Jeff Bezos' ex-wife, and seemingly thrown shade at Bill Gates in the aftermath of a recent scandal.
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Despite having his own name appear in the Epstein files, PayPal's Peter Thiel has called the Giving Pledge 'Epstein-adjacent' and is apparently discouraging other billionaires from donating their dollars to it.
Fortune says that Thiel hasn't just been telling others to avoid the Giving Pledge, but alleges that he's been "actively working to dismantle it from within."
Speaking to The New York Times, Thiel referred to the Giving Pledge as an "Epstein-adjacent, fake Boomer club" and suggested that it's yesterday's news when he said: "They got an incredible number of people to sign up those first four or five years, and it somehow has really run out of energy.
“I don’t know if the branding is outright negative, but it feels way less important for people to join."
Aside from Gates and Buffett giving the most, it's said that Zuckerberg has pledged $45 billion, while other top donors include Wipro's Azim Premji and the aforementioned MacKenzie Scott after she split from Bezos.
It's true that interest seems to have slowed, with the official site for the Giving Pledge stating that only 14 new signatories signed on in 2025. 2024 saw the notable addition of OpenAI's Sam Altman, although Thiel has boasted about how he's "strongly discouraged people from signing it, and then I have gently encouraged them to unsign it."
He's also told Elon Musk to retract his pledge amid concerns it would go to "left-wing nonprofits that will be chosen by Bill Gates."
While Thiel says "discussion about the role of philanthropy is inevitable and welcome," the Giving Pledge had been defended by interim lead Taryn Jensen in a note to Fortune. Jensen maintained that many have already met their commitments as others are still working toward them: "In its early years, the Giving Pledge helped build norms where few existed...That brings more resources to the world’s greatest challenges.
“Our goal is to keep building a culture where giving is the norm and to provide the support that helps turn commitment into action.”
In the same NYT interview where Thiel lambasted the Giving Pledge, Aaron Horvath, a sociologist who has studied the organization, called it a 'time capsule' of the 2010s, as billionaires now think: "I can keep my head down and keep making money. I don’t have to put up with this charity charade anymore."
Responding to Thiel's thoughts on Reddit, one critic said: "He despises the world where the poor have any influence over his goals through democratic voting. He wants to get rid of them."
Another grumbled: "It's hoarding, plain and simple, the fact that it's cash and not a house full of sh*t is of little consequence, it's the same sickness."
A third concluded: "I don’t think we realize what an existential threat these billionaires are to our way of life."