Interview Quotes

Major Announcement and Commitment to Philanthropy

"Well, in celebrating 25 years of incredible progress at the Gates Foundation, I'm committing that my money and the money in the foundation will all be spent over the next 20 years to the causes that we work on. Global health being the biggest, education being the second biggest, and basically things that we treat lives as having equal value. And I'm super excited that that'll be over 200 billion that we'll give away during that time period and that we'll be able to save tens of millions of lives."

— Bill Gates • 00:00:06

"No, this will be for a foundation and a large amount of research, definitely more than ever before."

— Bill Gates • 00:01:15

"Well, I think it's important to double down on the great success we've had."

— Bill Gates • 00:01:43

"And so we've been able to make sure that vaccines that stop you dying of diarrhea or pneumonia and other diseases are now getting out to almost all of those kids. And that's why we've gone from 10 million children dying every year to under 5 million children dying every year. And, you know, we can do more."

— Bill Gates • 00:03:00

"By deciding to spend all this money in the next 20 years, we can get a lot more done. And after that, you know, there'll be other very wealthy people who can understand what the problems are, what's still left over. So we're getting a lot of certainty and doubling down because of the success. In a way, it's wild that somebody can have as much money as I do. It is wild. And, you know, so I'm lucky to say, okay, you know, let's make sure those who are the poorest are the most in need, you know, kind of an equity value driven approach that I got from my parents, that that's, I'll be able to watch over making sure that money is very well spent."

— Bill Gates • 00:04:34

"Well, I'm sad that 5 million children die every year. I'm sad that some of the causes like helping to buy vaccines for children. Now, it looks like we'll be able to raise less money now than we did in the past because the US at least is tentatively not supporting buying those vaccines. And other countries in Europe that have always been substantially more generous are also cutting back as they have budget tightness."

— Bill Gates • 00:05:37

"But over time we'll get that number down even below, uh, 3 million."

— Bill Gates • 00:07:10

"Well, you always want more money going into these things where you're saving lives for a few thousand dollars. I mean, if people could actually visit and go to a malaria ward and see those children, they would buy bed nets. If you saw a hospital like one in a part of Mozambique called Gaza, you know, the money that stopped mothers from giving, uh, HIV to babies was cut off, uh, because of some confusion there. And, you know, that's just an incredible tragedy. Uh, so I'd be doing this even if others were being generous."

— Bill Gates • 00:07:58

"No, I think the U S, uh, shouldn't be cutting the money for vaccines or HIV medicines. And I'll be an advocate, uh, that, uh, you know, what was done, uh, now over 20 years ago when President Bush created a lot of these programs, uh, for HIV, malaria, and some other things, uh, that, you know, that, that should be maintained."

— Bill Gates • 00:09:36

"Yeah. So I talked to him about, uh, work on HIV and the great innovations and, uh, encouraged him the same way he had helped the COVID vaccine get done quickly. I said, Hey, let's work together to get, uh, what's called an HIV cure, uh, done sooner. I talked about polio or close, uh, that, uh, we, we stay committed. Uh, we could get that done in the next four or five years. So, uh, you know, it was a great discussion."

— Bill Gates • 00:10:06

"No, the, the government money here is, is, uh, over four times, even now at this high level where we're spending down over the 20 years, they, the government, the U S government's very big, bigger than one individual. So their money for global health, uh, was four times, uh, what, the Gates Foundation."

— Bill Gates • 00:10:54

"Yeah, absolutely. So we should be going from 5 million children dying a year over the next five years to 4 million. And now with these cuts, if they're, if they're not reversed, we'll go to over 6 million dying. So instead of going down, we'll go back up. Wow. So it's a difference of 2 million lives."

— Bill Gates • 00:11:19

"It's too bad people don't realize that, uh, in the US their government's generosity in Europe, their government's generosity, uh, partnering with us and others has been why we have a greater reduction in childhood death than ever in history of the world was this magic time period."

— Bill Gates • 00:12:12

"I mean, we have partners like rotary who help with polio eradication. I don't think they'll, uh, stand still while that money and those people have been let go. You know, we want to not let polio spread back to where it's paralyzing hundreds of thousands of children a year. And that's, you know, hangs in the balance."

— Bill Gates • 00:12:47

"So the, the plea here would be to say that for 1% of the budget, we're not touching the 99%. For 1%, if you can save lives for a thousand times less than we save lives here. And if that creates stability in those countries, so they're thriving countries that will participate in the global economy and we don't have to intervene with our military or anything. And the strategic relationship with them where they see that we've helped them, uh, advance, uh, and that that money is why you'll be able to see a future pandemic early and stop it from spreading like COVID did all the way to the United States. So there's a lot of benefits, uh, that come from what is a quite in the scope of the US government of a very modest amount of money."

— Bill Gates • 00:14:43

"Yeah, I hope they don't do that. Um, I think that, you know, if you, uh, are successful and you care about children dying, you, you should be able to, uh, uh, give, uh, you know, all of these programs, buying vaccines, buying HIV medicines so that mothers don't infect children, buying bed nets. These are things that the US government was giving more than I am, uh, to these things."

— Bill Gates • 00:15:37

Reflections on Life, Legacy, and the Future

"Um, you know, I'm stunned that, you know, I'm 70, uh, cause when I was young and you know, I thought, hey, those old people don't, uh, they're not very up to date on, you know, what's changing, what's important. And, you know, so here I am, uh, obviously now rather than, you know, write code myself or do it hands on, I'm supporting great young people, you know, scientists who are coming up with new vaccines. Like we're funding a TB vaccine and an HIV vaccine, and we're coming up with new, uh, uh, seeds that allow farmers to be more productive, even if the weather's, uh, getting more difficult for them."

— Bill Gates • 00:16:36

"Well, I wish I had, you know, even more time and, you know, I hope I'm lucky enough that during the 20 years that we spend, uh, all of these resources that I'll be able to both help guide it somewhat and, you know, see the work, uh, and make sure that others, you know, are going to step in to pick up where whatever doesn't get done, uh, during these next 20 years. Uh, no, I, I don't feel like a 70 year old that always kind of was like, wow, uh, how did that happen? Uh, but you know, I have to say, okay, this, this is, uh, you know, the last part of my life and I'm a steward of, of these resources. I should make sure that it's well spent."

— Bill Gates • 00:18:22

"Well, I have no interest, you know, in that, you know, if I cared about that, maybe I'd make the foundation of, uh, a foundation that lasts forever. And I, you know, other people choose to do that. That's fine. I don't think that's the way to have the most impact. Most of the things I work on will no longer be problems. You know, TB should be eradicated. Measles should be eradicated. Malaria."

— Bill Gates • 00:19:38

"Yeah. I think we'll treat all children's lives as having value, uh, because the world will be rich enough and the innovative tools to let you do that will be so strong. You know, the, the childhood death number, you know, should be very small and not different between different countries."

— Bill Gates • 00:20:19

"Well, certainly the fact that both people born here and people who come here are working on the latest medical understanding and willing to share that knowledge, including some funding, uh, for it, uh, the U S has been fantastic. You know, the PEPFAR program, uh, that goes back to, uh, President Bush, that was so generous, you know, literally saved millions of lives."

— Bill Gates • 00:21:08

"Well, I wonder what, you know, their, their thinking is the alternative to that. I mean, certainly, you know, we've seen where you have East, East Germany versus Western Germany, you have North Korea versus South Korea, you have societies that are culturally identical at the start, and one runs a more capitalistic system than the other. You see the outcomes in terms of education, life expectancy, freedom."

— Bill Gates • 00:22:38

"This is the best time to be alive. You know, if you get cancer today, it's better than 50 years ago. If you're, uh, a woman, if you're a gay person, if you want to learn a variety of things, uh, yes, there are problems. We need to solve Alzheimer's. We need to get rid of polio. Uh, but you know, now we have the tools that, you know, it's within our reach to make those advances."

— Bill Gates • 00:24:41

Technological Advancements and the Future of Health and Education

"Well, the, uh, you know, malaria is this terrible disease that was in America, but, uh, got eradicated. You know, we have tools now that give us a chance to completely get rid of that. Uh, malnutrition is a terrible thing. You know, most kids in Africa don't ever develop their brain or their body because their diet isn't quite right. And that's just a huge tragedy. Uh, HIV, you know, we have 40 million people in the world living with HIV and, uh, they don't live their full lifespan, even if they're taking their medicine. And so we need a tool that actually does a real HIV cure."

— Bill Gates • 00:25:52

"Well, in a certain sense, it's going to be so novel that none of us are ready for it. But some of the aspects of it are incredibly positive. I mean, we're already creating these AI tutors, you know, so I went to New Jersey to see how a form of AI called Khan Amigo from Khan Academy was being used by the math teachers there. And it was great to see the kid who was way behind. It was helping him. The kid who was way ahead, it was helping him. The promise in areas like health and education of AI improving the world is phenomenal."

— Bill Gates • 00:26:57

"I don't think you would change what you're doing today. You know, if they, they encourage them in the subjects they like over the next few years, the AI tutors will come in and, and help teachers, help them, uh, engage their students and motivate their students. But it's not like there's some new curriculum that we need to adopt."

— Bill Gates • 00:28:46

"Well, there's a lot of resources being put into Alzheimer's research. Um, I've funded some things."

— Bill Gates • 00:29:13

"Well, you know, we're working to take vaccines and instead of having a needle, it's just a little patch you put on your arm. You know, we don't know that might help improve the uptake. We're combining a lot of the vaccines together so that there's not as many shots involved."

— Bill Gates • 00:31:58

"Yeah, I don't think I, I have definitive knowledge in this area. But you seem excited about what you might learn in the next 20 years about this subject. But I think the basic idea of the golden rule that, you know, we should help other humans, you know, that pervades all religions."

— Bill Gates • 00:32:39