How are the accomplishments in this archive verified?

Every entry — 919 accomplishments at last count — is checked against the public record before publication: primary sources such as SEC filings, foundation reports, published books, and recorded talks where they exist, and reputable secondary coverage where they don't. Entries that can't be verified don't get published, and each one carries its source.

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Co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen at age 19 — Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1975Wrote his first computer program at age 13 on a GE-225 mainframeMicrosoft's first product: a BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800IBM licensed MS-DOS from Microsoft in 1980 — the deal that built an empireMicrosoft went public at $21 per share on March 13, 1986Became the world's youngest self-made billionaire at age 31 in 1987Net worth peaked at $101 billion during the dot-com boom of 1999Held the title of world's richest person for 13 of 16 years between 1995 and 2009Windows 95 sold 7 million copies in its first five weeksPredicted the internet's commercial rise in 'The Road Ahead' — 1995Predicted a global pandemic in a 2015 TED Talk — five years before COVID-19Predicted smartphones, social media, and price-comparison shopping in 1999Co-founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000The Gates Foundation is the world's largest private charitable foundationHas donated over $59.5 billion through the Gates Foundation since 2000Signed the Giving Pledge in 2010 — committed to donating 95% of his wealthThe Foundation has helped vaccinate over 1 billion children worldwideStepped down as Microsoft CEO in January 2000 to focus on softwareLeft the Microsoft board entirely in March 2020Co-founded TerraPower in 2006 to develop next-generation nuclear reactorsTerraPower broke ground on its first commercial reactor in Wyoming — 2023Co-founded Breakthrough Energy in 2015 to accelerate global clean energy investmentAwarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama — November 2016Received India's Padma Bhushan, the country's third-highest civilian honor — 2015Harvard gave Gates an honorary degree in 2007 — 32 years after he dropped outReads approximately 50 books per yearHas made over 25 documented predictions that have proven correctMicrosoft surpassed a $500 billion market cap in 1999The Gates Foundation has committed over $21 billion to global health programsAuthored three books: The Road Ahead · Business @ the Speed of Thought · How to Avoid a Climate DisasterCo-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen at age 19 — Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1975Wrote his first computer program at age 13 on a GE-225 mainframeMicrosoft's first product: a BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800IBM licensed MS-DOS from Microsoft in 1980 — the deal that built an empireMicrosoft went public at $21 per share on March 13, 1986Became the world's youngest self-made billionaire at age 31 in 1987Net worth peaked at $101 billion during the dot-com boom of 1999Held the title of world's richest person for 13 of 16 years between 1995 and 2009Windows 95 sold 7 million copies in its first five weeksPredicted the internet's commercial rise in 'The Road Ahead' — 1995Predicted a global pandemic in a 2015 TED Talk — five years before COVID-19Predicted smartphones, social media, and price-comparison shopping in 1999Co-founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000The Gates Foundation is the world's largest private charitable foundationHas donated over $59.5 billion through the Gates Foundation since 2000Signed the Giving Pledge in 2010 — committed to donating 95% of his wealthThe Foundation has helped vaccinate over 1 billion children worldwideStepped down as Microsoft CEO in January 2000 to focus on softwareLeft the Microsoft board entirely in March 2020Co-founded TerraPower in 2006 to develop next-generation nuclear reactorsTerraPower broke ground on its first commercial reactor in Wyoming — 2023Co-founded Breakthrough Energy in 2015 to accelerate global clean energy investmentAwarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama — November 2016Received India's Padma Bhushan, the country's third-highest civilian honor — 2015Harvard gave Gates an honorary degree in 2007 — 32 years after he dropped outReads approximately 50 books per yearHas made over 25 documented predictions that have proven correctMicrosoft surpassed a $500 billion market cap in 1999The Gates Foundation has committed over $21 billion to global health programsAuthored three books: The Road Ahead · Business @ the Speed of Thought · How to Avoid a Climate Disaster

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Bill Gates Accomplishments

Bill Gates Accomplishments — 919 Verified Events | The Bill Gates Archive

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Bill Gates at World Economic Forum Davos 2008

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Philanthropy

Education, poverty reduction, agricultural development, and foundation initiatives that don't fall under health or energy.

Showing 24 of 173 accomplishments

PhilanthropyLatest Entry

June 2026

Melinda French Gates commits an additional $215 million to women's health through Pivotal

Melinda French Gates announced in June 2026 that she would donate an additional $215 million through her organization Pivotal to focus on women's reproductive and midlife health, bringing her total support for women's health to about $600 million over two years. The commitment underscored French Gates's independent philanthropic path since stepping down from the Gates Foundation in 2024 and her focus on areas she has said are chronically underfunded. It came amid broader cuts to U.S. reproductive- and global-health funding.

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Philanthropy

January 2026

Bill Gates publishes the 2026 Gates Foundation Annual Letter, 'Reaching 2045'

Bill Gates published the 2026 Gates Foundation Annual Letter, titled 'Reaching 2045,' framing the next two decades as the Foundation spends down its endowment before closing in 2045. Gates wrote that his optimism now 'comes with footnotes,' questioning whether global generosity will keep pace with rising wealth and whether innovation will be scaled to reduce inequality. He pledged to spend much of 2026 advocating for child-health funding and set a goal of again halving child mortality in the global South by 2045, while voicing both excitement about AI for health and concern about managing its disruption.

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Philanthropy

May 2026

Gates Foundation commits initial $15 million to an Ebola outbreak response in Africa

In May 2026 the Gates Foundation committed an initial $15 million in emergency funding to support the response to an Ebola outbreak in Africa — $5 million to the Africa CDC for regional coordination, $5 million to the WHO Regional Office for Africa for frontline operations, and $5 million to WHO headquarters for rapid procurement, diagnostics, and surge logistics. The funding reflected the Foundation's continuing role as a rapid-response financier during infectious-disease emergencies, even as it scales toward its planned 2045 closure.

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Philanthropy

January 2026

Gates Foundation sets record $9 billion 2026 budget while cutting up to 500 jobs by 2030

In January 2026 the Gates Foundation approved a record annual payout of about $9 billion for the year while announcing it would reduce its workforce by up to roughly 500 positions — about 20% of its staff — by 2030, shifting money from operations into grants as it accelerates spending ahead of its planned 2045 closure. CEO Mark Suzman said the reductions would be gradual and reviewed annually rather than imposed in a single wave, and the board capped operating costs at no more than $1.25 billion, around 14% of the budget. The moves reflected the tension between scaling up philanthropic ambition and controlling overhead during the wind-down. The restructuring was among the most significant in the Foundation's history.

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Philanthropy

2026

Gates-funded World Mosquito Program cuts Colombia dengue by half — viral 'bacteria mosquito' claims debunked

Fact-checkers in 2026 pushed back on viral posts claiming 'Bill Gates' was personally releasing 30 million 'bacteria-infected mosquitoes' a week in Colombia, clarifying that the work is run by the World Mosquito Program — a not-for-profit owned by Australia's Monash University — not by Gates himself. The program breeds Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carrying the naturally occurring Wolbachia bacterium, which reduces the insects' ability to transmit dengue, Zika and yellow fever; city-wide deployments in the Medellín area between 2017 and 2024 protected millions of people and cut dengue incidence by roughly half. The Gates Foundation is a major funder of the method, having directed an estimated $185 million toward Wolbachia mosquito research since 2010. The accurate picture is a long-running public-health intervention, not the population-control scheme implied by the viral framing.

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Philanthropy

February 2026

Gates Foundation denies claims it released genetically modified mosquitoes in Kenya

In February 2026 the Gates Foundation publicly dismissed viral allegations that it had released genetically modified or laboratory-bred mosquitoes in Kenya, stating that it does not conduct any mosquito-release activities in the country. The claims spread on social media amid wider suspicion of Gates-funded malaria research using gene-drive and sterile-male techniques elsewhere in Africa. The Foundation clarified that its role is limited to funding scientific research into genetics-based approaches for controlling malaria-carrying mosquitoes, not deploying them in Kenya. Kenyan outlets reported the denial as misinformation about the Foundation's activities continued to circulate.

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Philanthropy

April 2026

Gates Foundation Announces External Governance Review and 20% Staff Reduction Amid Epstein Fallout

In April 2026, the Gates Foundation announced an independent external governance review led by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and two former US federal judges, tasked with examining Foundation oversight structures, donor transparency, and executive conduct policies. The Foundation simultaneously announced a 20% reduction in its global workforce — approximately 500 positions — citing the need to streamline operations. Foundation CEO Mark Suzman described the reductions as part of a 'strategic reset' unrelated to the Epstein scrutiny; critics and former staff disputed that characterization.

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Philanthropy

March 2026

US House Oversight Committee Issues Subpoena to Gates Foundation Over Epstein-Era Documents

In March 2026, the US House Committee on Oversight and Accountability issued a subpoena to the Gates Foundation demanding internal communications, grant records, and financial documents related to Jeffrey Epstein spanning 2010–2019. The committee gave the Foundation a 30-day compliance deadline. A Gates Foundation spokesperson said the organization was 'reviewing the request and committed to cooperating fully with legitimate oversight.' The subpoena focused specifically on whether Foundation grant decisions were influenced by Epstein and whether donor privacy obligations had been used to shield Epstein's involvement.

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Philanthropy

March 2026

Fortune Investigation Links Gates Associates Melanie Walker and Steven Sinofsky to Ongoing Epstein Contact

A March 2026 Fortune investigation reported that Melanie Walker — a Gates Foundation neuroscience programme officer and personal physician to Gates — and Steven Sinofsky, a former Microsoft executive and close Gates associate, had maintained contact with Jeffrey Epstein beyond the period Gates claimed the relationship had ended. Walker, who had met Epstein as a student in 1992 and remained close to him, attended Epstein events through at least 2017; Sinofsky had exchanged emails with Epstein as late as 2018. The story added to scrutiny of the breadth of Gates's social circle's ties to Epstein.

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Philanthropy

April 2026

Gates Foundation launches independent investigation into Epstein ties ahead of congressional testimony

The Gates Foundation announced it had commissioned an independent investigation into its financial and operational ties to Jeffrey Epstein — including the IPI donations and any other Epstein-associated giving — just weeks before Gates was scheduled to testify before Congress. The probe was ordered by the Foundation's board. Gates stated publicly that every minute I spent with him I regret and acknowledged meeting Epstein was a serious error in judgment. The investigation reflected the Foundation's recognition that ongoing press investigations into the Epstein relationship posed a significant long-term reputational risk to its global health mission.

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Philanthropy

May 2025

Gates Foundation opens a Singapore office and commits $100 million to Southeast Asian health

Around its 2025 engagement in the region, the Gates Foundation announced it would open an office in Singapore and front roughly $100 million for Southeast Asian regional health initiatives, launching a 'Health for Human Potential' program focused first on Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam — the region's most populous countries — with an emphasis on maternal and child health. The foundation also signed a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia's Tanoto Foundation to collaborate on nutrition, education, and building Asia's philanthropic ecosystem. The moves marked a notable expansion of the foundation's footprint in Asia.

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Philanthropy

2025

Gates Foundation explores bringing GLP-1 weight-loss drugs to lower-income countries

In 2025 the Gates Foundation began exploring how to bring GLP-1 weight-loss and diabetes drugs — such as Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Mounjaro — to people in lower-income countries, in talks with the Pan American Health Organization. Bill Gates noted that roughly a billion people worldwide are now obese, about 70% of them in low- and middle-income countries, and that 'behavior change is hard,' pointing to the drugs as a potential tool against obesity-linked chronic disease. The push anticipated cheaper generic versions of semaglutide as patents expire, and reflected the foundation's expansion beyond infectious disease into the rising burden of noncommunicable conditions.

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No algorithm. No clickbait. No corporate funding. Just one developer and 200+ verified entries — free for every curious person on the internet. If this is worth your time, help keep it alive.

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Philanthropy

March 2025

Breakthrough Energy lays off its climate policy teams as Gates retreats from advocacy

In March 2025 Breakthrough Energy — the climate organization Bill Gates founded in 2015 — laid off dozens of employees and shut down its U.S. and European public-policy and advocacy teams, retreating from the lobbying work that had helped pass the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The cuts, affecting more than three dozen staff including senior leaders, came as the Trump administration moved to boost fossil fuels and Republicans weighed rolling back clean-energy tax credits. Breakthrough Energy said it would refocus on its investment arms — Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Catalyst, and Fellows — signaling a shift from climate-policy advocacy toward funding technology directly.

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Philanthropy

2025

The Giving Pledge turns 15 amid scrutiny that most signers are richer than ever

The Giving Pledge — the campaign Bill Gates and Warren Buffett launched in 2010 to get the ultra-wealthy to commit more than half their fortunes to philanthropy — marked its 15th anniversary in 2025 with more than 250 signatories from about 30 countries. The milestone drew scrutiny: an Institute for Policy Studies analysis found the pledge largely unfulfilled in practice, with many signers far wealthier than when they joined and much of their giving routed into private foundations and donor-advised funds rather than working charities. Supporters credited it with normalizing large-scale giving; critics questioned its real-world impact.

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Philanthropy

January 2025

Gates Foundation's weight as a WHO funder grows as the US withdraws

After the United States announced in January 2025 that it would withdraw from the World Health Organization — a process that took effect in early 2026 — the Gates Foundation's relative weight as a WHO funder grew; it was already among the organization's largest voluntary contributors, providing on the order of 13% of voluntary contributions. Foundation CEO Mark Suzman issued a statement on the U.S. withdrawal warning of the risks to global health, while Gates reiterated that philanthropy cannot replace government funding. The episode underscored both the foundation's outsized role in global health and the fragility of relying on it to fill gaps left by governments.

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Philanthropy

June 2025

Gates says the majority of the foundation's $200 billion spend-down will go to Africa

In June 2025, speaking in Addis Ababa, Bill Gates announced that the majority of the roughly $200 billion the Gates Foundation expects to spend before closing in 2045 would go to Africa, calling on the continent's young innovators to help drive progress in health and development. The pledge came amid steep cuts to U.S. and other donor aid that Gates warned were reversing decades of gains. He framed the commitment as a bet that investments in health and human capital — maternal and child health, disease control, and agriculture — would unlock Africa's potential over the next two decades.

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Philanthropy

June 2025

Gates tours Ethiopia and Nigeria to mark 25 years of the foundation's work in Africa

In June 2025 Bill Gates traveled to Ethiopia and Nigeria to mark the 25th anniversary of the Gates Foundation's work in Africa, where it has committed to directing the majority of its giving over the next two decades. In Addis Ababa he met Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and joined roundtables on nutrition and Ethiopia's salt-fortification program; in Nigeria he met President Bola Tinubu and local innovators to discuss primary-healthcare reform and AI-driven health tools, and took part in a Goalkeepers Nigeria event. Gates used the trip to assess health priorities in the wake of global aid cuts and to reaffirm the foundation's long-term commitment to the continent.

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Philanthropy

June 2025

Warren Buffett donates a record $6 billion, reaffirming the Gates Foundation gets nothing after his death

In June 2025 Warren Buffett donated about $6 billion in Berkshire Hathaway stock to five foundations — his largest annual gift to date — including a major tranche to the Gates Foundation, to which he has given more than $47 billion over the years. Buffett, who co-founded the Giving Pledge with Bill Gates in 2010, has reiterated that the Gates Foundation will receive 'no money' from his estate after his death; his remaining fortune will instead go to a charitable trust overseen by his three children. The gifts highlighted both Buffett's extraordinary support for Gates's philanthropy and its coming end.

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No algorithm. No clickbait. No corporate funding. Just one developer and 200+ verified entries — free for every curious person on the internet. If this is worth your time, help keep it alive.

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Philanthropy

January 2025

Gates warns of a 10-15% chance of a major pandemic within four years

In January 2025 Bill Gates warned that the world remains underprepared for the next pandemic, estimating roughly a 10-15% chance of a major naturally caused pandemic within the following four years. Gates, who wrote the 2022 book 'How to Prevent the Next Pandemic' and proposed a global 'GERM' response team, argued that the world had not done enough since COVID-19 to build the surveillance, vaccine-manufacturing, and response capacity needed. He has pushed for distributed mRNA vaccine-production capacity in developing regions to hit a '100-day' goal for making vaccines in a future outbreak.

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Philanthropy

October 2025

Gates commits $50 million to the Dementia Discovery Fund, driven by his father's Alzheimer's

In October 2025 Bill Gates announced a $50 million personal investment in the Dementia Discovery Fund to advance research toward a cure for Alzheimer's disease, citing the personal toll of watching his father live with the condition. Gates highlighted priorities including better and earlier diagnosis, expanding clinical-trial participation, and using big data and new theories to speed progress. The commitment added to his earlier funding of dementia research and a broader pivot toward brain health.

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Philanthropy

October 2025

Gates skips COP30 as he urges the world to 'refocus' climate goals

Ahead of the COP30 climate summit in Belem, Brazil, Bill Gates urged the world to 'refocus' climate efforts away from temperature targets and toward protecting human welfare — funding health, agriculture, and energy access for the poorest — arguing that climate change, while serious, is 'not civilization-ending.' Gates, who founded Breakthrough Energy and has funded more than 150 decarbonization companies, notably did not attend COP30, a departure from his past participation. His message drew both praise and criticism from climate scientists and advocates.

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Philanthropy

September 2025

Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets Bill Gates at the UN and urges deeper China-US cooperation

On September 24, 2025, Chinese Premier Li Qiang met Bill Gates on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, praising the Gates Foundation's long-term work on poverty reduction and global health and urging it to help deepen China-U.S. exchanges and cooperation. Gates has cultivated a decades-long relationship with China, where the Foundation supports health, agricultural, and poverty-reduction programs and runs a Beijing office. The meeting underscored Gates's role as an informal bridge between the two powers amid strained relations.

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Philanthropy

September 2025

Gates and RFK Jr. 'agree to disagree' on vaccines as Gates seeks pragmatic cooperation

Bill Gates said in September 2025 that he and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had 'agreed to disagree' on vaccines, while signaling he hoped to find pragmatic common ground with the administration on global health. Gates, a longtime champion of childhood immunization, expressed concern that vaccine skepticism was spreading to low-income countries where measles deaths are far higher than in the United States. The comments came amid a U.S. measles resurgence and Kennedy's rollback of federal vaccine guidance.

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Philanthropy

March 2025

Gates warns the Trump administration his foundation cannot fill the gap left by USAID's shutdown

In March 2025 Bill Gates reportedly warned the Trump administration that the Gates Foundation could not fill the gap left by the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, stressing that private philanthropy is no substitute for U.S. government funding of global health. The warning came as the administration moved to shut down USAID and cut foreign aid, threatening programs for vaccines, HIV, and maternal and child health. Gates argued the cuts would cost lives among the world's poorest.

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[FAQ.LOG] · grep 'bill gates accomplishments'

The Questions Everyone Asks

QUERY_01

What are Bill Gates's greatest accomplishments?

Co-founding Microsoft in 1975 and leading it to become the world's largest software company; shipping MS-DOS and Windows, which put a personal computer on hundreds of millions of desks; co-founding the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, the largest private charitable foundation in history; donating more than $59.5 billion to global health, education, and poverty reduction; and backing breakthrough work in vaccines, polio eradication, and clean energy through TerraPower and Breakthrough Energy.

QUERY_02

What is Bill Gates best known for?

Two things: building Microsoft — co-writing Altair BASIC in 1975, licensing MS-DOS to IBM in 1981, and shipping Windows to the world — and then giving the resulting fortune away. Since 2000 he has been equally known as co-chair of the Gates Foundation, the driving force behind global vaccination campaigns, polio eradication efforts, and pandemic preparedness advocacy.

QUERY_03

What did Bill Gates actually create?

Gates is a programmer by training. He co-wrote the original Altair BASIC interpreter with Paul Allen in 1975 — Microsoft's first product. His larger creation was the company itself: under his leadership as CEO from 1975 to 2000, Microsoft shipped MS-DOS, Windows, Office, and Internet Explorer — the software stack that defined the personal computer era.

QUERY_04

What has Bill Gates done since leaving Microsoft?

He moved to full-time philanthropy in 2008 and left Microsoft's board in 2020. Since then the Gates Foundation has passed $77 billion in total grants; he co-founded TerraPower (advanced nuclear energy) and Breakthrough Energy (climate investment), published How to Avoid a Climate Disaster in 2021, funded mRNA vaccine research critical to the COVID-19 response, and committed 99% of his remaining wealth to the Foundation, which will spend down and close by 2045.

EOF · events_index.db · 919 records on file — every one documented, every one sourced

Bill Gates Accomplishments

Bill Gates Accomplishments

Melinda French Gates commits an additional $215 million to women's health through Pivotal

Bill Gates publishes the 2026 Gates Foundation Annual Letter, 'Reaching 2045'

Gates Foundation commits initial $15 million to an Ebola outbreak response in Africa

Gates Foundation sets record $9 billion 2026 budget while cutting up to 500 jobs by 2030

Gates-funded World Mosquito Program cuts Colombia dengue by half — viral 'bacteria mosquito' claims debunked

Gates Foundation denies claims it released genetically modified mosquitoes in Kenya

Gates Foundation Announces External Governance Review and 20% Staff Reduction Amid Epstein Fallout

US House Oversight Committee Issues Subpoena to Gates Foundation Over Epstein-Era Documents

Fortune Investigation Links Gates Associates Melanie Walker and Steven Sinofsky to Ongoing Epstein Contact

Gates Foundation launches independent investigation into Epstein ties ahead of congressional testimony

Gates Foundation opens a Singapore office and commits $100 million to Southeast Asian health

Gates Foundation explores bringing GLP-1 weight-loss drugs to lower-income countries

Breakthrough Energy lays off its climate policy teams as Gates retreats from advocacy

The Giving Pledge turns 15 amid scrutiny that most signers are richer than ever

Gates Foundation's weight as a WHO funder grows as the US withdraws

Gates says the majority of the foundation's $200 billion spend-down will go to Africa

Gates tours Ethiopia and Nigeria to mark 25 years of the foundation's work in Africa

Warren Buffett donates a record $6 billion, reaffirming the Gates Foundation gets nothing after his death

Gates warns of a 10-15% chance of a major pandemic within four years

Gates commits $50 million to the Dementia Discovery Fund, driven by his father's Alzheimer's

Gates skips COP30 as he urges the world to 'refocus' climate goals

Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets Bill Gates at the UN and urges deeper China-US cooperation

Gates and RFK Jr. 'agree to disagree' on vaccines as Gates seeks pragmatic cooperation

Gates warns the Trump administration his foundation cannot fill the gap left by USAID's shutdown

The Questions Everyone Asks

What are Bill Gates's greatest accomplishments?

What is Bill Gates best known for?

What did Bill Gates actually create?

What has Bill Gates done since leaving Microsoft?

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