‘Killing world’s poorest children’: Gates criticizes Musk’s aid policies

Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and a prominent philanthropist, announced on Thursday his commitment to give away USD 200 billion through his charitable foundation by 2045, a move he says will help eradicate diseases, prevent deaths, and fight global poverty.

In a scathing rebuke, Gates also criticized Elon Musk, accusing the Tesla and SpaceX CEO of undermining global efforts to combat poverty and disease by supporting massive cuts to US foreign aid.

The 69-year-old billionaire revealed that he would speed up his plan to divest nearly all of his fortune and wind down the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation by Dec. 31, 2045—years earlier than previously planned. Gates emphasized that this accelerated giving would focus on important global health issues, such as eliminating diseases like polio and malaria, ending preventable deaths among women and children, and reducing poverty.

The timing of Gates' announcement coincides with significant cuts to international aid, including those initiated by the Trump administration and continued under the current US government.

Musk, a vocal critic of foreign aid spending, has been involved in overseeing cuts to US aid programs, with around 80 percent of the US Agency for International Development's (USAID) funding set to be eliminated. USAID, which spent USD 44 billion globally in fiscal 2023, has been one of the key agencies involved in fighting diseases and alleviating famine worldwide.

Gates did not mince words when commenting on the implications of these cuts. "The picture of the world's richest man killing the world's poorest children is not a pretty one," he told the Financial Times, adding in an interview with Reuters that the reductions in funding would likely lead to a tragic reversal in the progress made over recent decades in reducing mortality rates. "The number of deaths will start going up for the first time... it's going to be millions more deaths because of the resources," Gates warned.

To mitigate the impact of these cuts, the Gates Foundation plans to increase its annual spending, which is expected to reach USD 9 billion by 2026 and about USD 10 billion annually thereafter. However, Gates has emphasized that even the foundation's sizable budget cannot replace the critical support provided by governments. "I think governments will come back to caring about children surviving" over the next 20 years, Gates said, noting that private foundations cannot fill the gaps left by cuts to public funding.

The longstanding tension between Gates and Musk over philanthropy has been widely documented. Once in agreement on the role of the wealthy in giving back to society, the two billionaires have since clashed, especially regarding the future of US foreign aid. When asked if he had recently appealed to Musk to reconsider his stance, Gates replied that it was now up to Congress to decide the future of aid spending in the US.

Musk, who has been outspoken in his criticism of Gates, responded on social media by labeling him a "huge liar" following Gates’ comments about the impact of foreign aid cuts.

Gates also made it clear that, despite the foundation's resources, addressing the world's most pressing issues would be impossible without sustained government involvement. "There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people," he wrote in a blog post. Gates specifically pointed to the fight against polio, which he believes cannot be fully achieved without continued US support.

Reflecting on the foundation's 25th anniversary, Gates shared his belief that values instilled by his parents shaped his philanthropic outlook. "The world does have values. That's what my parents taught me," he told Reuters.

Since its creation in 2000 with his then-wife Melinda and later joined by investor Warren Buffett, the Gates Foundation has given away over USD 100 billion, funding initiatives such as the Gavi vaccine alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

Gates plans to spend almost all of his USD 108 billion fortune on charitable causes, with the foundation expected to wind down once it has distributed approximately 99 percent of his wealth. The foundation was initially set to continue after their deaths, but the timeline has been significantly shortened.