Bill Gates donates $20 billion to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Bill Gates has pledged to give another $20 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which he co-chairs with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates. Stating that they will continue the foundation for another 25 years, Gates said that they will use the donation to either eliminate or reduce to very low levels the diseases that make the world unfair. Saying, “Being pessimistic is a sign of a lack of perspective,” Gates stated that he has an optimistic outlook for the world. Speaking at the 2022 Forbes 400 Philanthropy Summit, US technology giant Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced the 25-year plans of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates pledged to give another $20 billion to the foundation, which he co-chairs with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates. As it will be recalled, Bill Gates had donated $20 billion to the foundation again a few months ago. Explaining the foundation’s plans, Gates said, “The foundation’s goal is to continue for another 25 years. “Our goal is to largely end the diseases that make the world unjust, either by eliminating them or by reducing them to very low levels,” he said. In 25 years, Gates will be 91, and Melinda, if she is still with the foundation by then, will be 83. That leaves the next generation of philanthropic billionaires with a big role to play in building on the foundation’s work. “That’s probably a period of time where Melinda and I will be around to make sure everything goes well,” Gates said. “We think it makes sense to spend all the money in that period of time. So we’ve committed to spending more money and, more importantly, increasing the level of spending.” The Gates Foundation focuses on malaria, HIV, measles and polio eradication. Polio was detected in wastewater this year and has resurged in many countries, and a case of paralysis in upstate New York has led to a state of emergency. Despite these setbacks, Gates hopes the disease can be eradicated in the next three or four years. Gates also discussed his foundation’s work on a gene therapy to treat a cell disease that affects about 100,000 Americans with a single $2,000 shot. The foundation is planning a similar treatment for HIV using the same technology, which Gates hopes will take about a decade to develop. In all, the foundation has committed about $600 million to the effort. Gates said “Being pessimistic shows a lack of perspective” Gates, who predicted a pandemic in 2015 and gained worldwide fame for his views on Covid-19, still has no solution to the misinformation and conspiracy theories. “The conspiracy theories about Covid seem to be dying out with the waning pandemic. It’s calming down now,” Gates said. Gates also said he still has an optimistic outlook on the world. “Being pessimistic shows a lack of perspective,” he said, listing advances that range from work to reduce malnutrition and obesity to HIV vaccines to work on “green cement” to reduce industrial carbon emissions.