Tech billionaire Bill Gates has said that he will give away 99 percent of his wealth in the next two decades, funding his philanthropy the Gates Foundation long enough for it to close in 2045.

In a statement published on Thursday, Gates also firmly criticised the way his fellow centibillionaire – Elon Musk, an adviser to US President Donald Trump – is pushing to slash United States funds for essential things like food and medical assistance in poor countries.

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“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Gates told the Financial Times, referring to Musk’s work with the Trump administration to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Gates, who has a current estimated net worth of about $108bn, has long been among the most recognisable figures in the field of philanthropy, with an emphasis on medical assistance in poor countries.

He has also become a symbol of the enormous influence that such wealth can have on everything from politics to global health.

Pandemic vaccine criticism

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gates was a vocal opponent of loosening patent protections around COVID-19 vaccines in order to allow poorer countries to manufacture their own versions and distribute them to their populations more quickly, arguing that doing so would harm innovation and intellectual property rights.

Critics accused him of promoting a vision of “vaccine apartheid”. They have also questioned whether Gates, through his substantial funding of groups such as the vaccine group Gavi and the World Health Organization, wields disproportionate influence in the field of global health without the same oversight and accountability that a public institution would face.