Bill Gates is 'giving away' most of his $200b wealth

Bill Gates announced he plans to give away "virtually all” of his wealth, estimated to be around $200 billion.

The goal for the billionaire Microsoft founder is to distribute all this money within the next two decades via the Gates Foundation, with the end objective of permanently closing the foundation by 2045.

The Gates Foundation was founded back in 2000 by Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, and in its first 25 years has given away more than $100 billion.

In a post on the Gates Notes website, the 69-year-old explained his reasoning behind giving away the majority of his vast wealth.

“People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them,” Gates wrote. “There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people.

“That is why I have decided to give my money back to society much faster than I had originally planned.”

Photo by ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images

But he went on to explain the "change of plans" and after confering with the board, Gates believes the foundation’s goals can be achieved "on a shorter timeline".

"This decision comes at a moment of reflection for me. In addition to celebrating the foundation’s 25th anniversary, this year also marks several other milestones: it would have been the year my dad, who helped me start the foundation, turned 100; Microsoft is turning 50; and I turn 70 in October," the businessman and philanthropist noted.

Gates then went on to detail the three main goals the foundation will focus on: ensuring no mother, child, or baby dies of a preventable cause, that the next generation grows up in a world without deadly infectious diseases and for hundreds of millions of people to break free from poverty.

He has previously said he plans to leave one per cent of his fortune to his children as he wants them to seek their own success.

"Everybody gets to decide on that,” Gates said on the Figuring Out With Raj Shamani podcast. "In my case my kids got a great upbringing and education but less than one per cent of the total wealth because I decided it wouldn’t be a favour to them.

“It’s not a dynasty, I’m not asking them to run Microsoft. I want to give them a chance to have their own earnings and success.”

Elsewhere, Gates reveals the law he'd enforce to revolutionise the world if he took over and he urges people not to make one hugely popular investment.

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