Bill Gates sends $7.8bn to ex-wife’s charity as part of divorce settlement

Bill Gates, Microsoft founder, has sent $7.88 billion to his ex-wife Melinda’s charity as part of their divorce settlement.

A review of tax filings published in New York Times shows the donation was made in 2024 to Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation, the nonprofit Melinda launched after the separation.

Following Bill and Melinda’s divorce in 2021, Melinda resigned from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in May 2024.

The couple had founded the nonprofit in 2000 to address global poverty and disease.

Melinda said she had earlier requested that Gates donate $12.5 billion to a new charitable foundation she planned to establish.

She said that “under the terms of my agreement with Bill”, she would “have an additional $12.5 billion to commit to my work on behalf of women and families.”

A spokesperson for Melinda’s charity was quoted as confirming that the $12.5 billion agreement had been fulfilled.

The nearly $7.9 billion donation formed part of that agreement, the Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation spokesperson said.

Following the recent transfer, Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation has become one of the largest private foundations in the US.

Established in late 2022, a year after the divorce, the foundation reported $604 million in assets at the end of 2023.

By 2024, its assets had grown to $7.4 billion, even after it disbursed less than $500 million in charitable donations during the year.

Gates and Melinda first met in 1987, when she became a product manager at Microsoft. They married in Hawaii in 1994.

The former couple shares three children: son Rory, 25, and daughters Phoebe, 22, and Jennifer, 28.

In January 2025, Gates described the divorce as the “biggest regret” of his life.