Considering how much sway the world’s most high-profile billionaires and CEOs hold when they speak in the public eye, it’s a big deal when they make a prediction about anything from the economy to the future of AI.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has long captured attention with his big promises, from the Hyperloop high-speed transportation system Musk claimed would revolutionize the way we travel to a recent comment about how Tesla owners can one day make money with their autonomously driven cars, saying, “It’s like Uber, but your car will drive itself.” Who wouldn’t be excited by the idea of making money while they sit home, binge Netflix, and cuddle their pets?
ut that said, not all the thought leaders are out there giving us hope for our wildest dreams. Take the topic of tariffs, for example. Since President’s Trump “Liberation Day” announcement on April 2, CEOs and investors from a range of sectors have had plenty of doomsday thoughts to share, from Apple CEO Tim Cook saying tariffs will cost Apple $900 million this quarter to Warren Buffett calling them an “act of war.”
Related: Apple CEO sends blunt message on tariffs impact
Now one of the best-known CEOs in the world has spoken out about Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and it might be the fiercest thing he’s ever said about a fellow billionaire.
Bill Gates takes aim at Elon Musk
Microsoft co-founder and passionate philanthropist Bill Gates has openly criticized Musk in a new interview with the Financial Times, specifically calling out Musk’s decision (via DOGE) to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is responsible for administering civilian foreign aid.
“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” he told the Financial Times.
Musk called for the shutdown of the agency in February. Gates went on to say that Musk’s decision, as well as its abruptness, could cause once-controlled diseases like measles, polio, and HIV to resurge, while also leaving food and medicines that could save many lives to expire in warehouses.
“I’d love for him to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut that money,” he also said.
Gates also mentioned the impact of Musk and Trump’s actions during an interview with The New York Times, saying, “On childhood deaths, which over the next few years should have gone from five million to four million — now, unless there’s a big reversal, we’ll probably go from five million to six million.”
Gates’ long history of philanthropy
It’s no surprise that Gates feels angry about the choices Musk has made here, as Gates has made a point of being extremely active in philanthropy over the course of his career.
In 2000, he founded the Gates Foundation with his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, to make advances in health care and reduce global poverty. Since its founding, the Gates Foundation (as of Q4 2024) has made $83.3 billion in grant payments and has output a total of $102.3 billion in charitable spend.
In a post he shared on Gates Notes on May 8, Gates made a major announcement: in the next 20 years, Gates plans to give away 99% all of his wealth to the Gates Foundation, which as of today is worth an estimated $107 billion.
In the post, Gates mentions an essay by Andrew Carnegie, highlighting a quote: “The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.”
“I have spent a lot of time thinking about that quote lately,” Gates wrote. “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. There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people.”
Gates also announced that the Gates Foundation would cease operation in 2045.
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