On His 63rd Birthday, How Bill Gates Spends His $94 Billion Fortune To Make Our World Better

Before dropping out of Harvard, even as a teenager Bill Gates knew he would make it. Along with Paul Allen, he co-founded Microsoft, and the rest as they say is history.

That's right -- history. Bill Gates has written himself into history books for various amazing reasons, least of all being changing the world through technology forever.

Despite getting overtaken by Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world, Bill Gates is still active and involved in a number of causes, making good use of the billions of dollars from his personal fortune to help change our world for the better.

As Bill Gates turns 63 years old today, let's take a closer look at how one of the richest man in the world -- with $93.5 billion at his disposal -- is positively impacting the world through philanthropy and investing in our collective future.

ALSO READ: 11 Interesting Facts About Bill Gates, One Of The Greatest Living Legends Of Modern Technology

1) Charity

Eighteen years ago in 2000, Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda Gates, started the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation's objective is to eradicate poverty from the world, especially the developing world, and also to reduce hunger.

bill and melinda gates foundation // reuters

Through his foundation, till date Bill Gates has donated over $50 billion -- that's over Rs 3,66,000 crore -- to various charitable causes around the world, including in India.

2) The Giving Pledge

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett together launched 'The Giving Pledge' in June 2010, which asks billionaires and rich individuals around the world to pledge more than 50% of their personal wealth to philanthropy.

bill gates warren buffett the giving pledge // Reuters

Just within two months, Bill Gates' efforts helped 40 US billionaires commit $125 billion of their fortune towards charitable causes. As of October 2018, there are 186 pledgers from 22 countries around the world.

3) Climate Change

We all know that climate change continues to wreak havoc in our lives and poses a huge risk to the longterm existential threat to humanity on earth. Bill Gates has one of the earliest proponents of climate change activism and reducing global warming around the world.

bill gates at paris climate summit 2015 // the seattle times

At the 2015 UN Climate Change Summit in Paris, Bill Gates announced Breakthrough Energy Coalition, which is a group of private investors committed to investing in clean-energy firms and helping their innovative ideas out of the lab and into the world for a positive impact. Thus far $7 billion has been pledged into the investment fund, which includes Richard Branson, Jack Ma, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and others.

4) Global Healthcare

Dr Bill Foege sparked Bill Gates interest in the state of global health back in 1999, and he (along with his Melinda Gates) have never looked back ever since. A substantial amount of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's charitable donations have gone towards improving the health standards of the poor and struggling people around the world.

bill gates malaria forum

Just in 2016, the Foundation raised $16 billion to fight against AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, according to a CNBC report. Bill Gates continues to donate money towards trustworthy charitable causes that are trying to alleviate poverty and improve the health standard of people around the world.

5) Education

As far as the US is concerned, over the next five years, Bill Gates is donating $1.7 billion towards improving the quality of education in schools and colleges around the country. Through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates has identified inequality as the biggest problem across public schools in the US, which he's aiming to fix.

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