Bill Gates Bets On A Better World By 2045, Pledges $200 Billion In Aid
Despite sounding the alarm in recent years on issues like pandemics and climate change, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates says he's still deeply optimistic about the future.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Gates said, "You can accuse me of being by nature an optimistic person... but I just think I'm being realistic." He believes the next two decades will bring significant improvements globally, especially in health, education and poverty reduction.
Gates' hopeful stance comes amid growing geopolitical tensions and deep cuts in foreign aid by Western governments. In a blog post published Thursday, he warned that no philanthropic organisation can fill the widening funding gap left by these government decisions. "It's unclear whether the world's richest countries will continue to stand up for its poorest people," he wrote.
Yet, Gates remains firm in his commitment. He has unveiled plans to distribute $200 billion through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation over the next 20 years - after which the foundation will shut down. The focus: reducing maternal and child deaths, eradicating diseases like malaria, polio, and measles, and enabling millions, particularly in African nations, to escape poverty through better education and agricultural reforms.
"The truth is, there have never been more opportunities to help people live healthier, more prosperous lives," Gates said, pointing to rapid advances in technology and artificial intelligence. While he cautions against seeing AI as a "magic wand," he believes it will accelerate progress in global health and development.
Gates' optimism isn't without data. Child mortality rates, for instance, have halved since 1990, thanks to improved healthcare, nutrition, and vaccination access - a trend he believes can continue with renewed global cooperation and innovation.
He also called on fellow billionaires to ramp up their philanthropic efforts, highlighting younger donors like Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz and MacKenzie Scott, who have pledged large portions of their wealth to social causes.
"Even with all the challenges that the world faces," Gates wrote, "I'm optimistic about our ability to make progress - because each breakthrough is yet another chance to make someone's life better."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
United News of India
an hour ago
- United News of India
Microsoft fires another 300 people after recent major layoff
Washington, June 3 (UNI) US tech corporation Microsoft has cut its staff by more than 300 people after a major layoff in May, Bloomberg reported, citing a notice from the corporation to the US state of Washington that it has obtained. In May, CNBC reported that Microsoft would reduce its staff worldwide by 3% — the largest layoff at the company since 2023. According to data on the Microsoft website, as of June 2024, its staff worldwide numbered 228,000 people. More than 300 employees received a message on Monday that their positions were eliminated, the agency said. According to a Microsoft spokesperson, these organizational changes are necessary to improve the company's position and achieve success in a rapidly changing market. In January of this year, the company announced small layoffs in order to improve efficiency. According to the company's spokesperson, the new layoffs are not related to this. One of their goals is to reduce management levels. US corporation Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen and is headquartered in Redmond, Washington. The company specializes in software development, in particular, it is the developer of the Windows operating system. UNI SPUTNIK GNK
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Reliance only Indian firm in highly valued global technology companies list
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries is the only Indian firm to have made it to the listing of top 30 publicly traded global technology companies, as per a 340-page report, titled 'Trends - Artificial Intelligence', that delves into the rapid global adoption and transformative impact of AI technologies. The report lists global technology companies by market capitalisation. Top eight slots on the list are occupied by US technology giants - Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Tesla and Broadcom. Taiwan's TSMC is ranked 9th, followed by China's Tencent. Reliance, with a market capitalisation of USD 216 billion, is ranked 23rd, according to the list. "Over the past 30 years (1995-2025), just five companies remained on the top 30 most highly valued publicly traded global technology companies - Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, IBM and AT&T," the report said. It went on to list Reliance alongside the likes of Nvidia, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Tesla, Alibaba, Salesforce and China Mobile as the new entrants. "In 1995, the USA had 53% (16 of 30) of the most valuable tech companies and 70 per cent (21 of 30) in 2025," it said. In 1995, Japan had 30% (9 of 30) of top tech companies and zero in 2025. The UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mexico and Malaysia had 1 each, but now none are on the list. "In 2025, new geographic entrants include China with 3, Germany with 2, Taiwan with 1, Netherlands with 1, South Korea with 1 and India with 1," it said. Taiwan has only one company on the list - TSMC - the company produces 80-90% of the world's most advanced semiconductors and 62% of global semiconductors. According to the report, India has the most number of ChatGPT mobile app users in the world. It accounts for 13.5% of monthly active users of the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot developed by OpenAI. It is ahead of the USA (8.9%), Indonesia (5.7 %) and Brazil (5.4%). Pakistan has 3% of users. India also accounts for 6.9% of active global users of Chinese AI app DeepSeek, behind China (33.9%) and Russia (9.2%). "Artificial intelligence is reshaping the modern landscape at breakneck speed. What began as research has scaled into emerging core infrastructure across industries - powering everything from customer support to software development, scientific discovery, education, and manufacturing," the report said. AI, it said, is accelerating, touching more domains, and becoming more embedded in how work gets done. "Catalysing this growth is the global availability of easy-to-use multimodal AI tools (like ChatGPT) on pervasive mobile devices, augmented by a steep decline in inference costs and an explosion in model availability. Both closed and open-source tools are now widely accessible and increasingly capable, enabling solo developers, startups, and enterprises alike to experiment and deploy with minimal friction," it said. Large tech incumbents are weaving AI deeper into their products - rolling out copilots, assistants, and even agents that reframe how users engage with technology. Whether through embedded intelligence in SaaS or agentic workflows in consumer apps, the interface layer is being rewritten in real time. On the compute side, investment continues to scale dramatically. Capital expenditures across major cloud providers, chipmakers, and hyperscalers have hit new highs, driven by the race to enable real-time, high-volume inference at scale. The investment is not just in chips, but also in new data centres, networking infrastructure, and energy systems to support growing demand. "Whether this level of capital expenditure persists remains to be seen, but as AI moves closer to the edge - in vehicles, farms, labs, and homes - distinction between digital and physical infrastructure continues to blur," the report said. PTI
India.com
9 hours ago
- India.com
A Pakistani once fooled Microsoft founder Bill Gates and 'robbed' him of Rs 833 crore, read full story
Bill Gates drops a shocker, says will close Gates Foundation, announces to give away all his remaining wealth to… How Bill Gates was robbed of USD 100 million: You must have heard many viral stories about billionaire American businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, but have you heard the story where a Pakistani conman 'robbed' Microsoft founder Bill Gates of USD 100 million by fooling him. In a massive revelation, a new book has claimed that a Pakistani resident Arif Naqvi fooled billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates of around USD 100 million Rs 833 crore. Once the head of private equity firm the Abraaj Group, Arif Naqvi made business out of investors while doing 'good' for the world. During his business years, he spend time with super rich and powerful people, including Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, and former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. As Arif Naqvi was successfully running his business, he received $100 million from the Gates Foundation. However, as things turned out, a whistleblower exposed that Arif Naqvi had siphoned off $780 million from investor funds using shell companies. As a result of the revelation, Naqvi was arrested and is now facing criminal charges for orchestrating one of the biggest private equity frauds in history. 'Viksit Bharat' mission to positively impact the world too: Bill Gates India's ambitious goal of becoming 'Viksit Bharat' by 2047 will not only transform the country but also positively impact the world, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has said. According to the billionaire philanthropist, if India can stay on the path of the 2047 plan, 'it will be beneficial not just to India but to the whole world'. Gates hailed India's digital public infrastructure (DPI), including Aadhaar and UPI, calling it one of the country's most significant contributions to the world. Speaking at a media event in the national capital, he said that prioritising key sectors like health and education in India has created a very positive dynamic. (With inputs from agencies)
