Bill Gates says the Gates Foundation will spend more than $200 billion by the end of 2045 and then close permanently. The estimate includes the foundation’s existing endowment and Gates’s future contributions; it is not a fixed amount transferred on announcement day. The foundation’s board endorsed a $9 billion annual payout for its 2026 budget, a current scale marker rather than a promise that every future year will match it.
What did Bill Gates announce?
On May 8, 2025, during the foundation’s 25th anniversary year, Gates announced that he intended to give virtually all of his remaining wealth to the Gates Foundation and that the foundation would spend down its resources and close by December 31, 2045. The foundation says it expects to spend roughly twice as much in the next 20 years as it spent during its first 25 years. Gates’s announcement and the foundation’s financial FAQ describe the plan.
How much will the foundation spend by 2045?
Gates said he expects the foundation to spend more than $200 billion between the announcement and 2045. The precise total depends on markets and inflation, and includes both the existing endowment balance and future contributions from Gates. It is therefore a projection, not a guaranteed cash total or a one-time donation of $200 billion in 2025.
For near-term context, the foundation’s governing board endorsed a $9 billion annual payout for the 2026 budget in an update published January 14, 2026. That completed a four-year plan to reach a steady-state level; it does not establish that payouts in every following year will be identical. The foundation had reported an $8.74 billion budget in its 25th year in January 2025. The board’s 2026 budget update and the 2025 budget update provide those figures.
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Why is Gates giving away his fortune on this timetable?
The foundation presents the accelerated schedule as a way to concentrate resources on urgent needs and give its partners greater certainty about available funding. Rather than operating in perpetuity, it plans to direct its resources toward a defined set of goals and finish its work by the end of 2045. Its current public statement says the foundation will close permanently then; it does not promise that the institution will continue under another form.
What work will the foundation focus on through 2045?
The foundation’s 2026 annual letter identifies three goals: ending preventable maternal and child deaths, eliminating deadly infectious diseases, and lifting millions out of poverty. The letter also stresses that innovation must reach the people who need it, which depends in part on affordability and access, and that collaboration and durable systems matter. The 2026 annual letter describes these priorities.
The foundation says it wants to help establish systems that can last beyond its own closure. That is an aspiration, not a guarantee: the organization’s sunset date is fixed in its current plan, while the durability and future effects of particular programs depend on partners and circumstances.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What do the foundation’s operating costs mean?
In its January 2026 budget update, the foundation said operating expenditures were approximately 13% of total spending in 2024. It also projected that, without action, they could approach 18% by the end of the decade. The 18% figure is the foundation’s forecast, not an observed result, and both figures are the foundation’s own reporting. The foundation’s budget update provides the operating-cost context.
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