Bill Gates Says He Fully Intends To Lose His Rich List Spot While Still Alive

Determined to follow a similar path, Gates has vowed to relinquish his rich list spot, with Forbes noting how, thanks to his most recent donation, he ‘drops one spot to number five in the world, with a net worth of some $102 billion sitting outside the foundation’. 

Gates said: “I'll get myself out of the highly visible part of the list with just say two more gifts of this magnitude. I would get myself off the top part of the list. 

“Getting all the way off the list, that's going to take me a while, but my direction of travel is clear.” 

According to Forbes, the $20bn donation brings Bill and Melinda Gates’ lifetime giving amount to $55 billion, which makes them the ‘biggest philanthropists of all time’ – moving ahead of Warren Buffet, who has given away $48 billion, most of it also to the foundation. 

The pair plan to up the foundation spending by 50 percent, to $9bn a year, by 2026, with a project spend between now and then of $41.4bn.

“This is going to supercharge or accelerate, charge, turbocharge basically all the work that we do," Gates said.

He continued: “The good news is that even during the tough times of divorce, which are fortunately now more than a year behind us, we were able to work constructively at the foundation. 

“It's always surprised to me how much Melinda and I agree on foundation stuff. And we have a few things where she knows better than I and we just support each other. 

“She gets to speak for herself, but everything I see says that, 'Hey, we're the great partnership running the foundation, we've always been'.” 

Referencing his ex-wife's recent trip to Africa, he added: “So she went to Rwanda where the Commonwealth heads of state got together. She went to Senegal and she was writing back every day. I saw this, I think about that.”