American tech billionaire, Bill Gates, has accused fellow billionaire, Elon Musk, of “killing the world’s poorest children” by backing deep cuts to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), once a major source of funding for global health and food aid programmes.
“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Gates told the Financial Times on Thursday, in a stinging rebuke directed at Musk.
Musk currently leads the Department of Government Efficiency under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Gates said the sweeping aid reductions, implemented by Musk’s department, have “decimated” USAID’s ability to support life-saving initiatives, including vaccinations for children and emergency food assistance for vulnerable populations.
His comments came as he announced a pledge to give away nearly all of his personal wealth within the next two decades and wind down the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation by 2045.
The foundation, established in 2000 with his then-wife Melinda French Gates and later joined by Warren Buffett, has already spent $100 billion and aims to disburse another $100 billion before it closes.
In a statement published on his website, the Microsoft co-founder 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 took aim at broader cuts to foreign aid from wealthy nations.
“It’s unclear whether the world’s richest countries will continue to stand up for its poorest people,” he said, pointing to reduced commitments from the United States, the United Kingdom and France.
He warned that without government support, even the foundation’s substantial resources would not be enough to sustain progress in global health.
Using polio as an example, Gates stated that eradication efforts would likely fail without U.S. funding: “Polio would not be eradicated.”
Despite facing criticism for the foundation’s vast influence in global health and being the subject of conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gates maintained that billionaires have a responsibility to act.
“I hope other wealthy people consider how much they can accelerate progress for the world’s poorest if they increased the pace and scale of their giving, because it is such a profoundly impactful way to give back to society,” he said.
Gates and Musk were once aligned on philanthropy but have since clashed repeatedly, with aid policy now at the heart of their divide.
