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Case file s569 · Foundations · 2025
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2025
Bill Gates: Bill Gates at the European Commission - P067383-987995 (cropped) 5
Bill Gates. Bogdan Hoyaux / European Union. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
"living; announced 8 May 2025"
Place
Seattle, Washington · United States
Field
software; philanthropy · Business and finance on the timeline
Legal tradition
US federal tax law; Washington trust law · Common law
Historical event
2021 Gates divorce; cuts to US foreign aid in 2025
Member of
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Chinese Academy of Engineering (Wikidata)
FoundationsGiven awayNowNorth AmericaUnited States

Bill Gates said in May 2025 the Gates Foundation will spend its endowment and close on 31 December 2045

Bill and Melinda Gates built the largest US private foundation, holding its assets in the Gates Foundation Trust. In 2006 Warren Buffett pledged about 10 million Berkshire Hathaway B shares on three conditions: that Bill or Melinda be alive and active in it, that it remain a charity, and that it give away each year an amount equal to his gift plus 5% of net assets†. The couple divorced in 2021, and Buffett stepped down as a trustee that June†. The foundation agreed a two-year trial after which Melinda could leave and receive resources from Bill for her own work†. She resigned as co-chair effective 7 June 2024†. The trust's 2024 return lists her as trustee until 1 October 2024 and Bill Gates as trustee and CEO. In June 2024 Buffett said the foundation would receive nothing from him after his death†. In May 2025 Gates announced that the foundation will spend its money and close on 31 December 2045, about $200 billion in total†. At the end of 2024 the trust held $77.56 billion.

What the law took from it

A fixed closing date settles who controls a foundation after its founder by ending it, at the cost of a permanent endowment.

Sources
  1. The New York TimesPress
  2. ProPublicaPress
  3. ProPublicaPress
  4. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Bill Gates said in May 2025 the Gates Foundation will spend its endowment and close on 31 December 2045,” story s569, https://www.celebrity.estate/bill-gates-2025, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

FoundationsGiven awayNowNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited States